Help wanted: Jobless China workers await relief as COVID-19 hits economy

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Life is never easy for China's nearly 300 million migrant workers, but with the coronavirus zapping jobs at a historic clip, unemployed factory ...

But the pandemic has paralysed overseas export demand and the 29-year-old has faced only rejection or low-ball pay on his roughly 3,500km odyssey.The global pandemic will force millions worldwide to spend Friday's International Workers Day in unemployment and uncertainty.

Chinese brokerage Zhongtai Securities last week estimated joblessness at 20.5 per cent, or around 70 million workers - far exceeding that of the 2008-09 global financial crisis and three times official estimates.But in an indication of the sensitivity of jobs data in China, Zhongtai later retracted the report, apparently under official pressure.

Geoffrey Crothall of China Labor Bulletin , which tracks Chinese labour strikes and workplace abuses, said"clearly there is grave concern in the central government".CLB already has tracked scores of small-scale work-related protests in the country since the virus erupted. The central government last week indicated its concern about workers, urging greater help for rural poor and migrants, including extending unemployment benefits to them for the first time.

 

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