Zhang Xiaoqiang, secretary general of China's State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC), spoke at a China-ASEAN symposium on Economic and Social Impact of SARS on Tuesday.

He acknowledged that China started to feel growing employment pressure due to the impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

China's service sector was once the key industry providing jobsfor new members of the workforce, but experienced a sharp downturnduring the SARS period, Zhang said, predicting that the SARS impact on China's employment would still endure for a while.

A report from the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) showed that China's labor supply had peaked in recent years.

In 2003, China saw over two million workers more than last year,the report said, adding that 70 percent of the new workforce in the past five years found their jobs in the service sector.

However, the report noted that China's catering, commerce, and social service industries were worst-hit by SARS epidemic, and many small and medium-sizementerprise had to shut down their business which inevitably led to a sharp decrease of social labor demand.

According to the report, SARS disease had slowed down the income growth rate of urban and rural residents and forced about seven million to eight million rural laborers to return to their hometowns.

The report said that the average income of China's farmers would be reduced about 35 yuan (about 4.5 US dollars) in the second quarter of 2003 and the growth rate of cash income of the farmers would be down three percent on last year.

The DRC predicted in the report that the employment pressure and financial difficulties of those rural and urban underdevelopedresidents would be the major issues for China's economic development in future.

SARS worsened China's employment situation which had already been struggling, Zhang said, vowing that China had to boost labor intensive industries and provide necessary assistance to small andmedium-scaled enterprises to help create more job opportunities and offset the negative SARS effects.

China would rebuild confidence in the country's service industries by improving service quality, Zhang said, creating a clean and safe industrial environment and promoting healthy consumption.

The recovery of the tourism and civil aviation sectors would bethe key for China to shake off the SARS shadow, Zhang said.

According to the report, SARS had slowed down the income growthrate of urban and rural residents and forced about seven million to eight million rural laborers to return to their hometown.

The report said that the average income of China's farmers would be reduced about 35 yuan (about 4.5 US dollars) in the second quarter of 2003 and the growth rate of cash income of the farmers would be down three percentage points over that of last year.

The DRC predicted in the report that the employment pressure and financial difficulties of those rural and urban underdevelopedresidents would be the major hard issues for China's economic development in future.

The SARS worsened China's employment situation which had already been not that optimistic, Zhang noted, vowing that China had to boost the labor intensive industries and provide necessary assistance to the small and medium-scaled enterprises to help create more job opportunities and offset the negative SARS effects.

Zhang revealed that China would rebuild the confidence in its service industries by improving the service quality, creating clean and safe industrial environment and promoting the healthy consumption.

The recovery of tourism and civil aviation sectors would be crucial for China to shake off the SARS shadow, Zhang added.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2003)