How to solve the unemployment problem? From a sociological point of view,

In the process of rapid economic system transformation and social structure transformation, there are many defects and anomie in the differentiation and reorganization of economic system and values, which have brought many major social problems and aroused great concern from all walks of life. China's current and future laid-off unemployment problem is one of them.

Sociology is a comprehensive and concrete social science about the conditions and mechanisms for the benign operation and coordinated development of society. It has strong cognitive function and practical function.

Analysis of social problems, from the perspective of historical conditions and regional differences, has universality and particularity. Let's start with universality. Unemployment is a common economic and social phenomenon in developed market economy countries and countries in transition from planned economy to market economy. It is not only related to the vital interests of thousands of families, but also related to the overall situation of national economic and social reform, development and stability. The problem of laid-off and unemployment has become a common social problem that must be faced in social development. China is the country with the largest population and the richest labor resources in the world, so it has also become one of the countries with the greatest employment pressure in the world. Let's talk about particularity first. In the transition from planned economy to socialist market economy and the adjustment of economic structure and industrial structure in China, the problem of laid-off and unemployment is more prominent, which has many unique characteristics different from other countries and has become a social problem that the party, government and all walks of life are paying close attention to and are trying to alleviate.

First, the definition of laid-off unemployment

When it comes to the problem of laid-off unemployment, we must first involve the definition and statistical standards of laid-off unemployment. Unemployment is a state of separation of labor and means of production in the sense of economics. Unemployed people should have three conditions: first, they have the ability to work; Second, there is a desire to work; No job. Therefore, unemployment can be defined as a social phenomenon that workers who have the ability and willingness to work can't find jobs and lose employment opportunities within the stipulated working age. China's unemployment statistics are very flawed. Mainly manifested in the inconsistency between employment and unemployment statistics. After 1994, the National Bureau of Statistics defined "registered unemployed people in cities and towns" as non-agricultural people who have the ability to work within a certain working age, are unemployed and require employment and are registered with local employment service agencies. The defects of this definition are as follows: firstly, employees and unemployed people are limited to urban centers outside agricultural registered permanent residence, excluding a large number of rural laborers currently in cities and towns; Second, the statistics of unemployed people are only registered, excluding those unemployed people who are not registered; Thirdly, since 1993, especially since 1998, a large number of laid-off workers have appeared, which is a special phenomenon in the specific transition period of China, including both the unemployed and the re-employed population. A considerable number of actual unemployed people are not counted (in some places, unemployed people are not counted when they are laid off, but employed people are counted when they are re-employed); Fourth, the statistical caliber is not in line with international standards, so it is impossible to make international or historical comparisons; Fifth, the national unemployment statistics are based on monthly statistics, quarterly statistics and annual statistics, while China only counts year-end figures, which is not conducive to monitoring the macroeconomic situation and changes in unemployment and employment.

We have a unique term called "laid-off". According to official documents, the so-called laid-off workers are defined as employees who have not terminated their labor relations with the enterprise, have no jobs in the original enterprise, and have employment needs but have not found new jobs. Because these people "have not terminated their labor relations with enterprises", they are still "employees", so they are not unemployed and cannot enjoy the relevant treatment of unemployment insurance. But its essence is that these people can't combine with the means of production, stay out of the production process, can't create social wealth, and lose the material basis of life. Therefore, for the convenience of expression, I will call it laid-off unemployment for short here.

Second, about structural unemployment.

It should be noted that there are many reasons for laid-off workers in China. There are many angles to study the problem of laid-off unemployment, and I want to try to analyze it through sociological theory.

Sociology believes that the analysis of social problems, from its root, has structural imbalance and functional imbalance. Structural imbalance social problems refer to social problems arising from social structural imbalance. Social structure refers to the connection mode of social components. When this connection is destroyed and distorted, or it is not suitable for social development, structural imbalance will occur. As a result, social order is chaotic and social operation is sluggish.

The structural functionalism of sociology attaches great importance to the study of the balance and coordination mechanism in social operation and social development. It is considered that the operation process of social structure is also the process in which social structure exerts its social functions. Social problems arise because a certain part of the social system cannot function normally. Society is a unified whole composed of many interrelated and interacting parts, and each part plays a certain social function to maintain the balance of the whole society and contribute to the stability and balance of society. But if a certain part can't function normally, it will lead to social problems.

Sociology believes that modern society is a highly organized society, and social development is increasingly manifested as organizational development. In this sense, society is organization, and organization is society. Therefore, the study of society is inseparable from the study of social organizations, especially in the period of social transformation, the adjustment of social organization structure is of great significance to the reform of the whole social structure.

Sociology also believes that social organizations include organizational objectives, organizational structure, organizational elements, organizational management, organizational functions, organizational environment and organizational control. Among them, the goal is the soul, the goal is the direction, the goal is the motivation, and the goal is the standard of management and assessment. Elements are the foundation, structure is the core and the key. Structure determines the mechanism, and the organic cooperation of structure and mechanism can better play the organizational function and achieve the goal.

China's unemployment is not only a problem of oversupply of labor resources, but also a structural unemployment problem, especially in the current social transition period of China's economic transformation. Structural unemployment aggravates the general contradiction, increases the difficulty of solving the contradiction and increases the cost of reform.

1. Laid-off unemployment is the result of changes in ownership structure.

China has been implementing a planned economy system for a long time. In order to solve the employment pressure and reduce the unemployment rate, the government has been directly arranging employment for state-owned enterprises in a planned way. At the cost, it led to a large number of hidden unemployment in state-owned enterprises. The direction of reform and transition is the socialist market economy, and one of its transition ways is to implement public ownership as the main body and develop various economies together. With the deepening of economic system reform, the disadvantages of traditional state-owned economy are becoming increasingly obvious, and its competitiveness is not strong. Some industries and enterprises in the state-owned economy continue to lose money and decline because of the rigid system, aging technical equipment and declining personnel quality (lack of enthusiasm and creativity); However, the non-public sector of the economy has sprung up suddenly and continued to grow. Taking our province as an example, the economy of non-public ownership and mixed ownership has developed from "one third of the world" at the beginning of reform and opening up to "two thirds of the world" now, and the output value of foreign capital, collective and individual private enterprises has accounted for 83% of the province. The non-public economy in our province has become the main channel of employment. The vast majority of laid-off workers come from state-owned and collective enterprises. For example, since 1998, more than160,000 people in our province have entered the re-employment service center, mainly due to the recession of state-owned enterprises. It can be seen that the growth of different ownership systems is different, accompanied by changes in the ownership structure of employment.

2. Laid-off unemployment is formed by the continuous adjustment of industrial structure and the redistribution of production factors.

With the development of the national economy entering a new stage, people's demand structure changes and living standards improve, the growth of social demand in some industries slows down or even declines, the level of scientific and technological innovation decreases, some production capacity is idle, and some employees are bound to become unemployed; In addition, scientific and technological progress has also improved the organic composition of capital and reduced the employment opportunities created by the same amount of capital.

Economic system reform provides institutional conditions for industrial structure adjustment. The adjustment of industrial structure has its own independent content, mainly to improve the technical content of products and industries, improve labor productivity, and then achieve the purpose of improving economic benefits through the upgrading of products and industries. Here, many products that have been made for decades are eliminated, and many sunset industries will shrink. At the same time, many new products need to be developed and new industries need to be developed. In addition, due to the serious repeated construction under the guidance of the planned economy's unique investment system, on the one hand, it has formed a general scale diseconomy, on the other hand, it has caused many products to lie in the warehouse forever, resulting in a great waste of limited resources. With the acceleration of industrial restructuring, some enterprises will be merged and some enterprises will be eliminated. This process is manifested in employment, that is, a large number of employees are laid off. For example, in the past five years, the number of spindles in Shanghai has reached 1 10,000 spindles, the number of state-owned cotton spinning enterprises has decreased by nearly half, and the total number of textile workers has decreased from 550,000 to 200,000. According to relevant data, the deepest adjustment of industrial structure in China is the manufacturing industry, and the number of laid-off workers accounts for the highest proportion of the total number of laid-off workers in the country, reaching 47%, while manufacturing employees only account for 30% of the total number of employees in state-owned enterprises. In this process, because many enterprises have been eliminated as a whole, being laid off has become the only choice for employees who have been eliminated as a whole.

Some traditional industries are facing strategic adjustment due to the exhaustion of resources and backward products, which has also caused laid-off workers. Some traditional industries, such as coal and forest industry, a considerable number of enterprises are facing resource depletion and urgently need strategic adjustment. Today, a large number of military enterprises are facing the strategic adjustment of military to civilian in peacetime. However, it is difficult for the state finance and local finance to raise a large amount of funds to support adjustment or subsidize losses. So it is inevitable that some employees will be laid off. Pucheng Copper Mine and Liancheng Manganese Mine in metallurgical industry in our province, Hualong Machinery Factory and Dongfang Machinery Factory in military industry all belong to this type.

The decline in the employability of the secondary industry is an inevitable stage of industrial development, which has a certain normal share in the total number of laid-off workers. There are generally two stages in the historical evolution of industrialization in developing countries. The first stage is that the employment capacity of the primary industry decreases and the employment capacity of the secondary industry increases; In the second stage, the employability of the secondary industry declined, while that of the tertiary industry increased. Judging from the stage of industrialization development in China, it has entered the second stage. The more the economy develops, the greater the employment capacity of the tertiary industry. For example, the proportion of the employed population in the United States is 3% in the primary industry, 0/8% in the secondary industry and 79% in the tertiary industry. Therefore, the total number of laid-off workers in the secondary industry in China also includes a certain normal share that will inevitably appear in the stage of economic development.

3. Laid-off unemployment is an inevitable reflection of the disadvantages of the employment system and employment policy implemented under the planned economy system in the process of economic transition.

As we all know, under the traditional planned economy system, China has long implemented the policy of "low wages and high employment" and the national unified contract distribution employment system. Whether the labor force is hired or not is not entirely based on the technical composition and actual needs of the enterprise, but through administrative resettlement, which has a strong welfare color. People vividly call it "three people do five jobs, three people eat five meals" Enterprises are inefficient, wrangling with each other and overstaffed, resulting in a large number of "on-the-job unemployed" personnel. First, there are too many unproductive personnel; second, there are a lot of overstaffing; third, the technological progress of enterprises is delayed. With the deepening of reform, state-owned enterprises are required to change their mechanisms and improve their efficiency. There are too many redundant employees in state-owned enterprises, which are incompatible with modern production and market economy for a long time. The reform has fully exposed this problem and contradiction.

4. The low quality of laid-off workers and their weak competitiveness in the labor market are important reasons for structural unemployment.

In terms of quantity, the supply of labor in China exceeds demand; From the structural point of view, redundant staff and job vacancies coexist, that is, there is a situation that "some people have nothing to do and others have something to do". Take our province as an example. Among the urban workers in our province, skilled workers only account for half, and senior workers only account for 3.5% of the total number of skilled workers. Among the millions of rural laborers engaged in non-agricultural industries and urban work, illiteracy accounts for about 16%, primary school education accounts for about 40%, and those who have received vocational education and training only account for 5% of the total rural labor force. How can such a low cultural and technical quality adapt to the competition in the labor market and the needs of new technologies, new processes and new equipment after China's entry into WTO? The low quality of the labor force intensifies the contradiction between supply and demand in the labor market.

The low quality of labor force is closely related to the long-term policy of "low wages and high employment" and the high labor participation rate in China. The high labor participation rate of teenagers shows that a large number of teenagers with poor education and the lowest vocational skills enter the labor market prematurely, which not only improves the labor participation rate, increases the labor supply, but also greatly reduces the overall quality of the labor force, artificially increasing the employment competition and pressure.

Laid-off workers have become a special social group, especially those who are older, single-skilled, outdated and have low cultural quality. Even with the arrival of new economic growth or the successful reform of state-owned enterprises, new jobs will not provide many employment opportunities for these laid-off workers. These jobs are mainly provided for young people with higher education. Some scholars believe that they were actually eliminated by the society (labor market), and they have become a special group thrown out of the social structure.

5. The structural changes in the urban-rural dual labor market have increased the structural unemployment pressure.

People often refer to the urban-rural relationship in China before the reform as dual structure. Due to inappropriate economic development strategy and economic system selection, with the process of national industrialization, rural labor force can not freely flow to industrial sectors with high productivity, resulting in a large number of agricultural labor force staying in agricultural sectors with low productivity for a long time, resulting in serious agricultural employment shortage. Since the reform and opening up, rural employment has increased rapidly by increasing the opportunities for agriculture to effectively use labor resources and expanding non-agricultural employment in rural areas such as township enterprises. However, due to various reasons, farmers' income growth is too slow, the burden is too heavy, some increase production without increasing income, a lot of land is abandoned, the gap between urban and rural areas is further widened, and more and more farmers go out to work. One of the important reasons is that the employment situation is grim and it is difficult to find employment. People of insight pointed out that the improvement of agricultural labor productivity and farmers' income mainly depends on reducing the number of farmers. Therefore, the transfer of rural surplus labor force to cities and towns has become inevitable. Although township enterprises and urban economy have shared a large part of the employment pressure of rural surplus labor force since the reform and opening up for more than 20 years, the existence of agricultural surplus labor force and the increase of new labor force every year still bring great pressure to urban and rural employment.

6. Joining WTO has a great influence on the employment structure of our country, mainly focusing on two issues: structure and quality.

At present, at the moment when the old and new systems are completely alternating, the total employment contradiction and structural contradiction are intertwined, the intersection of the unemployed and laid-off workers entering the market and the transfer of rural surplus labor brought about by China's accession to WTO will have a great impact on China's employment. The primary industry is the hardest hit area. Experts predict that if China increases its grain imports by 3%, it will reduce tens of millions of agricultural employment opportunities. For workers who continue to engage in agricultural production, there are also new requirements in technology and skills. Therefore, the employment of the primary industry will face the dual pressures of reducing the demand quantity and improving the quality. The employment structure of the secondary industry has undergone great changes. Affected by the international market, the structure of the secondary industry will be adjusted quickly, and the industries that reduce employment opportunities mainly include automobiles, machinery, grain and oil processing, electronic communication equipment, etc. It is estimated that the employment opportunities will be reduced by more than 1 10,000 people. The tertiary industry ushered in a good opportunity for development and the number of jobs increased.

After China's entry into WTO, low-tech and low-quality industrial workers are facing enormous competitive pressure. First, the total number of skilled workers is insufficient, showing a downward trend. In 200 1 year, there were about 60 million skilled workers in China, accounting for 46% of all employees in enterprises, which was 22 percentage points lower than that in 1994. Second, the technical level of skilled workers is low and the overall cultural quality is not high. Among the 60 million skilled workers, intermediate workers account for the largest proportion, accounting for 43%, followed by junior workers accounting for 40%, senior workers accounting for 15%, and technicians accounting for 1.5%. Third, high-skilled talents are older, and technicians and senior technicians are young and yellow. Some experts predict that if measures are not taken as soon as possible, high-skilled talents in China will face the danger of unemployment. The wages of senior technicians in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other cities exceed those of graduate students, reflecting the serious shortage of middle and senior skilled workers in the labor market.

To sum up, China's employment and laid-off unemployment are facing a grim situation in which the total contradiction is not decreasing, the structural contradiction is increasing, and the two contradictions are intertwined. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan and the Tenth Five-Year Plan, structural contradictions increased significantly. With the great adjustment of the global economic structure, structural contradictions will intensify, and there are still problems of low quality and weak vitality of the labor force; The disadvantages of rigid economic system and employment mechanism. All these increase the contradiction of structural unemployment and the difficulty of solving it. Therefore, how to deal with the challenge of laid-off unemployment, especially structural unemployment, is a problem that must be paid attention to and solved in the economic and social development under the new situation.

Third, efforts to adjust the structure of the labor force countermeasures

1. Governments at all levels should strengthen their leadership and macro-control, incorporate active employment policies into the government's target management responsibility system and the overall plan for economic and social development, and especially take controlling the rise of unemployment rate as an important indicator and measure to practice General Secretary Jiang Theory of Three Represents, liberate and develop productive forces and safeguard the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. General Secretary Jiang pointed out that the essence of implementing the "Theory of Three Represents" requirement is to persist in governing for the people. This important idea should be reflected in the reemployment of laid-off workers. First, vigorously develop productive forces and increase economic growth rate. According to Keynesian theory, unemployment is mainly caused by insufficient effective aggregate demand. Therefore, the effective way to control unemployment is to strengthen effective demand, improve the level of national economic activity through policies such as stimulating investment and increasing government expenditure, and maintain a relatively fast economic growth rate, thus increasing employment. Sustained economic growth is the fundamental way to solve the problem of laid-off unemployment. Without sustained economic growth and increased employment opportunities, there will be no solid foundation for solving the unemployment problem. The second is to formulate and improve a long-term and stable employment policy that is compatible with the macro-economy, handle the adjustment of industrial structure and the transformation of economic growth mode, and deepen the relationship between system reform, job creation and re-employment projects. Realizing the benign interaction between expanding domestic demand and expanding employment will give priority to creating more jobs. When formulating their own policies, all government functional departments should coordinate with the local employment situation, prevent the macro-economic policy from being divorced from the employment policy, and ensure the coordinated development of employment and economy; We will adopt various preferential employment policies and measures, adopt measures combining social digestion, enterprise digestion and individual self-employment for laid-off workers, and encourage them to take the road of entrepreneurship and employment. Third, deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises, establishing a modern enterprise system and arranging surplus staff and workers in state-owned enterprises step by step are the needs and inevitable trends of market economy. However, no matter what the actual situation is, if we adopt a one-size-fits-all policy and unconditionally push the surplus staff of state-owned enterprises to the society, the unemployment rate will suddenly rise sharply, which will not only be detrimental to the improvement of re-employment quality, but also bring economic and social turmoil. Therefore, it is necessary to proceed from the overall situation of stability, take into account the relationship between reform, development and stability, and control the intensity of reform within an acceptable range of social stability. In principle, state-owned enterprises with normal production are not allowed to dismiss employees at will. When state-owned enterprises are restructured, reorganized, closed or bankrupt, priority should be given to the employee placement plan. Enterprises with imperfect employee resettlement plans and social security measures and unfulfilled resettlement funds cannot enter bankruptcy proceedings. The reform of state-owned enterprises should seriously consider the ability to pay for enterprise resettlement funds, local financial capacity and social stability. The fourth is to establish a supervision and assessment system. Take promoting re-employment as an important evaluation standard to measure the performance of the government and its functional departments, form an incentive mechanism to promote re-employment, and truly implement the goal of promoting employment.

2. Establish a market-oriented employment mechanism and improve the unemployment insurance system. Carry out the policy of "workers' independent employment, market regulating employment and government promoting employment", give play to the basic regulating role of market mechanism in labor resource allocation, wage formation and labor mobility, guide job seekers to change their employment concept, obtain jobs through fair competition, support employers to decide the quantity and quality of employment independently, take various measures to promote the formation of market-oriented employment mechanism, and establish a unified, open and competitive labor market. Form a new pattern of labor market with fair competition in employment, flexible wage leverage, legal labor relations and risky social security, and help workers achieve employment and re-employment through the labor market. This reform goal cannot be shaken.

The practice of implementing the re-employment project in recent years shows that if the concept of workers has not changed and they have not become the masters of employment, the government's efforts will get twice the result with half the effort, or even give up halfway. The process of economic restructuring also shows that in the ever-changing market, workers are more likely to succeed if they make their own decisions and are responsible for their own profits and losses; Even if they fail, they will start all over again at their own risk. In fact, Chinese workers have the spirit and ability to start their own businesses. Of course, the government should actively support laid-off workers to choose their own jobs, especially in terms of business convenience, financial support and venue arrangement, and stick to it as a long-term system.

Employment assistance should be established as a routine system for the special groups with difficulties in competing for employment in the labor market. Special attention should be paid to laid-off and unemployed workers who are older and have the desire to find a job, but are unable to re-employment due to physical and technical reasons, and preferential policies to promote re-employment should be implemented.

Further improve the unemployment insurance system. In view of the weak links existing since the implementation of this system, efforts should be made to improve it. First, expand the coverage of unemployment insurance and enhance the support capacity of unemployment insurance funds; Second, strengthen management and service, and give full play to the dual functions of unemployment insurance in ensuring the basic livelihood of unemployed people and promoting re-employment; Third, strengthen the dynamic management of the unemployed and improve the relevant provisions on eligibility in unemployment insurance benefits.

3. Comprehensively improve the cultural quality and vocational skills of workers and promote re-employment. Man is the most decisive force in productivity. In accordance with the spirit of General Secretary Jiang's "1 July" important speech, we will vigorously develop vocational training forms such as higher vocational and technical schools, secondary vocational and technical schools, technical schools, employment training centers, private vocational training institutions and enterprise staff training centers, and strive to form an all-round and multi-level vocational education and training system. Especially the training of laid-off workers, to promote employment through training. It is necessary to improve the pertinence, applicability and timeliness of training, and formulate the focus of improving quality according to the characteristics of different groups of workers. For laid-off workers, the improvement of quality includes not only skill components, but also basic professional quality, employment concept and ability to adapt to professional changes. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the education and guidance of employment policy and employment concept, and improve their ability of self-employment and self-employment. We will fully implement the system of training before employment and training before taking up posts, form a fashion of advocating knowledge and skills in the whole society, and form a mechanism that employment depends on quality and jobs depend on skills.

4. Accelerate the pace of labor market construction and provide quality services for laid-off workers. The reemployment of laid-off workers is essentially the redistribution of labor elements in the national economy, and the most effective means of distribution is through the market. Gradually forming a unified, open, competitive and orderly labor market is one of the important pillars of the socialist market economy. The more standardized and transparent the labor market is, the more active the exchanges will be, the more favorable it will be for all kinds of workers to participate in open, fair and orderly competition, and the more attractive it will be to laid-off workers.

At present, there are many reasons why laid-off workers dare not compete in the labor market, but the imperfect labor market and irregular competition are also an important reason. In particular, all kinds of fees, driven by economic interests, cause regional and local division and blockade of employment information; Some laid-off workers in the labor market are ignored and become a veritable "migrant workers market"; Most laid-off workers mainly rely on relationships to find jobs.

The content of the labor market service system is very rich, including labor market facilities, management institutions, market regulations and intermediary services. Intermediary services specifically include the collection, release and transmission of labor market supply and demand information, career introduction and career guidance. At present, the labor market should take the re-employment service of laid-off workers as the top priority and provide effective services according to their characteristics. In particular, it is necessary to extensively recruit tertiary industry, community service, flexible employment and other jobs suitable for laid-off workers and vulnerable groups to re-employment, strengthen vocational guidance, and truly play the role of employment bridge.

5. Coordinate urban and rural employment and organize the orderly flow of rural surplus labor. The transfer of surplus agricultural labor to cities is a historical trend and a process of social progress. In order to realize the transfer of agricultural surplus labor to non-agricultural industries, two major problems have been encountered in recent years: first, the development of rural non-agricultural industries has stagnated, which is manifested in the decrease of employees in township enterprises instead of increasing; Second, the process of urbanization is still very slow, and the dual pattern of urban and rural areas and the constraints and negative effects of related household registration and employment security systems make it difficult for agricultural labor to transfer and flow normally. Starting from the reality of our country, local digestion should be the first choice for transferring agricultural surplus labor. In order to realize the effective transfer of rural labor force, it is necessary to further develop township enterprises and give full play to their role as the main channel for resettling agricultural surplus labor force. It is also necessary to speed up the development and construction of small towns, so that they can become the first-class "reservoir" for the transfer of surplus agricultural labor to cities, which can not only improve the urbanization level of rural population, but also promote the development of secondary and tertiary industries in small towns, expand employment capacity, and thus reduce the employment pressure in cities.

On the urban side, while reforming the household registration system and eliminating the artificial obstacles to the flow of urban and rural labor force, we should carry out corresponding reforms in the employment system and social security system, so that the rural labor force engaged in non-agricultural industries can really be transferred from the land and integrated into the secondary and tertiary industries in the city, thus completing this transfer and greatly improving the scale and speed of urbanization.