Wednesday March 25, 04:51 AM
China raises jobless migrant count to 23 million
By Lucy Hornby
BEIJING, March 25 (Reuters) - China estimates the number of its unemployed migrant workers has risen to 23 million since January's Lunar New Year holiday, with 11 million of those who returned to cities still searching for jobs.
China is worried about the potential for unrest among its migrant workers, most of whom work in the hard-hit construction, textile and export manufacturing sectors. Previous estimates before the holiday, when Chinese return to their home provinces, had put the number of unemployed migrants at about 20 million.
Millions of former migrant workers were still in the countryside, trying to find work close to their home towns rather than venturing afield in a weak job market, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
About 225.42 million Chinese were classified as 'rural workers', the Chinese term for migrants, at the end of 2008, the bureau said in an estimate higher than that used in the past. Of those, 140.41 million work outside their home county, often travelling thousands of miles to seek work in the big cities or the coast.
Chinese government estimates in January had put the total number of migrant unemployed at 20 million, as the country struggled with a severe downturn in the real estate sector and demand for its exports.
Remittances from migrant workers have been an important source of income for families in rural China, where incomes, education and access to health care lag far behind the cities.
Most of the migrant workers surveyed by the bureau have a middle school education or below. Almost all have some legal claim to farmland, although in most cases that land is being farmed by their relatives or has been leased to fellow villagers, the study said.
China's labour problems are not limited to migrants, as college graduates also struggle to find jobs. About 70 percent of upcoming graduates had yet to have an offer, a Shanghai employment agency estimated on Tuesday, adding that normally at this time of year 70 percent already know where they would work.
(Editing by Nick Macfie)
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