Briefly describe the main factors restricting the transfer of rural surplus labor force in China?

Analysis on the reasons and restrictive factors of agricultural transfer in China

Abstract: Since the reform and opening up, the widening income gap between urban and rural areas in China has become a prominent social problem. At the same time, with the improvement of agricultural productivity, a large number of surplus labor forces have appeared in rural areas. As the proportion of non-agricultural income in farmers' total income is increasing, the transfer of rural surplus labor force will become an effective way to solve the widening income gap between urban and rural areas.

Keywords: income gap, labor transfer, restrictive factors

I. Introduction

Since the reform and opening up, with the acceleration of China's modernization process, the income gap between urban and rural areas in China has been widening. In the early days of reform and opening up, the income gap between urban and rural areas narrowed, and 1978 was 2.6: 1, 1985 once fell to 1.9: 1. But then the situation reversed, and the income gap between urban and rural areas widened to 2.9: 1 in 1994. The situation has been deteriorating since 2002, when the income gap between urban and rural areas reached 3. 1: 1. The income gap between urban and rural areas expanded to 3.23: 1 in 2003, 3.2 1 in 2004 and 3.22: 1 in 2005. Moreover, these data do not really reflect the actual income gap between urban and rural areas. Non-monetary income such as medical care, education, insurance and social security enjoyed by urban residents is not taken into account. If these factors are taken into account, the income gap between urban and rural areas may reach 4 times, 5 times or even 6 times. The income gap between urban and rural areas has become a prominent social problem. At the same time, there are a large number of surplus laborers in rural areas. Under the condition of limited contribution of agriculture to farmers' income, the transfer of rural surplus labor force will be the result of increasing farmers' income and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas.

Second, the income status of rural residents in China under the dual mechanism

Although the distribution of labor force in China has been greatly adjusted, there are still many aspects to be completed if rural residents want to share the fruits of current and future economic growth. So far, during the period of reform and opening up, although the per capita income and consumption growth during the period of 1978- 1985 mainly came from the increase of agricultural productivity and actual output price, after 1985, it mainly came from the increase of income from non-agricultural employment activities. 1978, 4% of rural household income comes from non-agricultural activities. At 1985, the proportion increased to 3 1% and reached 43% at 1998. 1985- 1998, transfer and property income account for about 6% of the total income. If we ignore this part of income, now more than half of rural residents' income is close to 60%, which has come from non-agriculture for more than 20 years. To sum up, the increase in farmers' income comes from three aspects: first, government tax reduction, exemption and subsidies; Second, the increase in income brought about by the development of agricultural production and the adjustment of agricultural structure; The third is non-agricultural income. Therefore, non-agricultural income is mainly farmers' wage income, which is the main factor to increase farmers' income, and this needs the support of rural surplus labor transfer and industrial structure adjustment.

The improvement of agricultural technology level can promote the improvement of farmers' income level to a certain extent. However, under the condition of exogenous demand, this mechanism will be restricted by the relationship between agricultural product prices and total agricultural output. Under the condition of high price and output elasticity of agricultural products, the positive effect of improving agricultural technology level on farmers' income will gradually weaken, which is also the basic reason why the income promotion effect of improving agricultural technology level in China will gradually weaken after the reform and opening up. Because the output sensitivity of agricultural product prices will limit the actual impact of agricultural production costs and the improvement of agricultural technology level on farmers' income level, the effect of policies aimed at improving rural residents' income level through the internal mechanism of farmers' income determination is often greatly restricted. Since the reform and opening up, our government has made great efforts to reduce the burden on farmers and increase their income, and formulated a series of policies. However, the overall implementation effect has been unsatisfactory, which is the fundamental reason.

The government's tax and fee reform in rural areas, the transfer payment to farmers and the provision of public goods in rural areas can increase farmers' income and reduce their living costs to a certain extent, but the increase in actual income level brought by this policy accounts for a small proportion of farmers' total income and cannot play a greater role in increasing farmers' income and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas.

From this point of view, if there is no substantial increase in non-agricultural income, the impact of the improvement of agricultural productivity and government transfer payments on rural residents' income is very limited. Obviously, the prosperity of rural residents in the future cannot mainly depend on agriculture, but should find more non-agricultural jobs for the labor force currently engaged in agriculture and those who will engage in agriculture. The history of the past 20 years clearly shows that in order to greatly narrow the huge gap between urban and rural per capita actual consumption and income, agricultural labor force must be transferred to non-agricultural labor force more quickly.

Third, the theory of rural surplus labor transfer.

Lewis (W.A., 1954), winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, demonstrated through theoretical model that the transfer of rural surplus labor force is the basic way for developing countries with dual economic structure to realize modern economic growth. He pointed out that there is a dual economic structure composed of traditional agriculture and modern industry and commerce in developing countries. There are a large number of surplus labor in traditional departments. Because the income level of workers is determined by their marginal rate of return, farmers' income can only be kept at a very low level if there are a large number of surplus laborers in rural areas. However, the labor productivity and wage income of modern industrial and commercial departments are much higher than those of traditional agricultural departments. On the one hand, transferring the surplus labor force from the traditional agricultural sector to the modern industrial sector will improve the income and living standards of these transferred workers; On the other hand, it will increase the output and accumulation of modern industrial sectors. With the increase of accumulation, modern industrial and commercial departments have the ability to absorb more rural labor.

Since the reform and opening-up, China has developed export-oriented labor-intensive industries and created a large number of employment opportunities, driven by investment from China coastal areas, especially from Hong Kong and Taiwan. A large number of rural surplus labor force flows to coastal areas, greatly reducing the pressure of rural surplus labor force. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, economic development has absorbed nearly 200 million rural laborers. Even so, there are still nearly 654.38+0.5 billion surplus laborers in rural areas of China, and the potential of developing township enterprises to solve the employment problem is limited. According to Petty-Clark Theorem, with the successful improvement of income level, the labor force will shift from the primary industry to the secondary industry, the economy will further develop, and then the labor force will develop to the tertiary industry. At present, China is in the middle stage of industrialization. To solve these surplus labor forces, we need to rely on the development of the secondary and tertiary industries, especially the tertiary industry, to attract labor, but it is currently restricted by many factors.

Four, analysis of the factors restricting the transfer of surplus labor to the secondary and tertiary industries

1, the human capital stock is small and low, which restricts the level and effect of rural labor transfer.

Todaro, an American economist, pointed out that the motive force of labor force flowing from rural areas to cities is the gap of expected income between urban and rural areas, and this expected income effect is also obvious in China. However, the low level of human capital of rural labor force in China restricts its expected income growth. 200 1 According to a sample survey of more than 60,000 farmers and rural labor force in 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities)180,000, the human capital stock of the sample farmers is as follows: the proportion of the labor force with junior high school education or below is as high as 87.8%, among which the illiterate or semi-illiterate labor force accounts for 7.4% of the total labor force. Primary school education is 365,438+0.65,438+0%, junior high school education is 49.3%, senior high school education is 9.7%, technical secondary school education is 2.0% and junior college education is 0.5%. Only 13.6% of the rural labor force have received professional skills training. The secondary industry and tertiary industry are developed with industrialization and urbanization, and most of them belong to modern economic sectors, which require higher human capital. The basic education and vocational education in the vast rural areas of China are quite backward, and the proportion of labor trained with special skills is low, which restricts the scale and speed of rural labor transfer, and rural labor can only be transferred to industries such as construction and transportation.

2. The slow development of the labor market has slowed down the flow of employment information.

The success of migration depends on many factors, among which the information factor cannot be underestimated. Research shows that most migrant workers get information through kinship and geographical relations, that is, employment information comes from relatives, friends or neighbors in the province. This single stream of information is much less than that transmitted by a mature labor market, and it takes time to grasp the information and make reasonable judgments to reduce market risks and uncertainties, which is much less efficient than having a mature labor market. The lag in the construction of labor mobility service system and intermediary organizations makes rural labor force flow blindly because of lack of information or inaccurate information. On the one hand, a large number of laborers made a trip in vain and suffered losses, on the other hand, the speed of rural labor transfer was greatly slowed down.

3. Constraints of current household registration system and land system.

(1) China's current dual household registration management system that divides urban and rural areas has been reformed, but it has not fundamentally changed.

There are still obvious inequalities between urban and rural residents in social status, identity, employment, housing, subsidies, labor insurance and welfare. Rural labor flows into towns. Under the restriction of the current household registration management system, they can't get equal competition rights and equal treatment with local citizens, which also causes them many difficulties in food, housing, employment, salary increase and children's schooling. On the one hand, it increases the cost of rural labor employment in cities and towns; On the other hand, the rural labor force can't get a stable job in cities and towns for a long time, which leads to a considerable number of workers returning to the countryside after working in cities and towns for several years, forming a reverse transfer.

(2) The rural land system is collective ownership and household contract.

When the contract is implemented, the land is basically distributed equally per head, not only the land area is average per head, but also the soil quality is average per head. As long as the rural population, whether working or doing business, gets an average share of land. Under the current land system, the illiquidity of land determines that the distribution of township enterprises and towns can only be confined to the original communities, which restricts the relative concentration of township enterprises, the rational layout and scale expansion of towns, forming the so-called "leaving the land without leaving home" pattern, which restricts the flow of rural labor factors and the scale of rural labor transfer.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion

1, China's non-agricultural income has gradually replaced agricultural income as the main source of farmers' income.

With the improvement of agricultural productivity, a large number of rural laborers will be liberated from the land and become surplus laborers. With the increase of urban and rural income, transferring surplus labor force will become an effective way to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas.

2. There are some restrictive factors in the process of rural surplus labor transfer in China.

We need to give full play to the public interests of the government. We can only constantly improve these constraints, increase investment in rural human capital, establish and improve the rural labor market, change the current household registration system and land system, and make the rural labor factors flow rapidly and improve the transfer speed.