There is both bad news and good news for China's employment situation. The bad news is that the country is expected to face a job shortfall of more than 14 million this year, which implies the unemployment rate may hit a record high.

The good news is that the booming private sector, estimated to create up to 70 percent of new job opportunities in China, can play a crucial role in easing the country's unemployment pressure.

This week job fairs will be held in 100 cities nationwide to help private enterprises find workers.

The campaign, launched by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, is part of efforts to address the unemployment problem.

Hu Deping, vice-chairman of the federation, said China's private sector has become a major employment channel, with over 4 million private and self-employed firms employing more than 200 million people.

A similar program organized last year offered a total of 1.43 million job vacancies and helped 575,000 people successfully land jobs. Higher hope is pinned on this year's event.

The vice-chairman also noted that private enterprises will enjoy tax cuts, government subsidies for worker training and secured credit in return for creating jobs.

These incentives are undoubtedly encouraging and conducive to lowering the unemployment rate, but much has to be done to help boost the development of the entire private sector and then to generate more job opportunities.

One badly needed move is to open up more sectors currently monopolized by State-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as power, telecommunications and rail to the private sector to stimulate its growth.

Meanwhile, local governments should be urged to abandon their discriminatory policies and regulations against private enterprises and allow them to enjoy the same national treatment as SOEs and foreign-funded firms.

Equally, employees need to make changes to their traditional ideas of job-hunting so that they can fully tap into the huge potential of the private sector.

Chinese, especially university graduates, have always shown a clear bias against private firms in seeking employment due to the long-held belief that jobs with private enterprises are usually unstable and poorly paid.

The bias has already resulted in a rush by millions of job-seekers to government bodies and SOEs, whereas job opportunities in the private sector are neglected. This is what labor experts refer to as the strange co-existence of "lack of jobs (in the state sector)" and "lack of job seekers (in the private sector)."

The earlier the private sector is given fair treatment by both governments and job seekers, the sooner the country's unemployment problem will improve.

(China Daily April 12, 2006)