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The Effect Of China's Economic Reform Program On The Employment Structure In China's Urban Areas, Feng Xu, Scott Fausti, Dwight Adamson, H. Kim

Economics Staff Paper Series

A review of China's economic and political reforms since 1978 is provided and then linked to structural change in China's urban labor force as a result of the reform process. Analysis of data on urban labor allocation in China from 1978-97 indicates labor is being reallocated from the public sector to the private sector at a very rapid pace. The data indicates the urban labor has doubled and employment in the private sector has increased from nearly zero to a little over 30% in a 20 year period. The data also suggest that Chinese estimates of urban employment and unemployment …