Topp on jobs

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 2:47 PM - 0 Comments

Late last week, Brian Topp released his fourth policy paper, this one on jobs and small business.

I propose that new federal credit union legislation be enhanced to promote the establishment of new credit unions while respecting the integrity of the credit union governance structure.  Enhancements would  allow them to reach a larger client base while respecting the credit union difference…

I propose an enhanced and renewed federal labour-sponsored venture capital program, that learns from the success of the Quebec system and from the lessons of the Ontario experience. I propose  that permitted placements in federally-chartered labour-sponsored funds be increased to $15,000 from then current $5,000; that eligible investors be limited to sophisticated parties, who are investing on the advice of investment professionals; and that management fees and charges, diversification of investments, and eligible managers be much more carefully regulated and limited than was the case in Ontario…

I propose that Export Development Canada explicitly allocate at least 5% of its programming to small and medium sized business – and actively engage with small companies to encourage them to build their overseas sales.

Well, there’s your problem

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 12:45 PM - 0 Comments

The fall report of the auditor general is here.

The concerns expressed there include defence procurement, tobacco farming compensation, drug safety, visa processing and assessing the results of the government’s economic stimulus.

Don’t do something

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 12:07 PM - 17 Comments

Stephen Gordon questions those calling for the government to take action on jobs.

My reading of the data of which I’m aware suggests that current rates of job creation are consistent with those observed during the last expansion, and have been so for a year or so. Calls for the government to “do something” are misplaced; the labour market has been functioning normally for quite some time now.

Is America in a depression?

By Jason Kirby - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 6:20 AM - 12 Comments

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Everywhere Darren Enns looks these days he sees the devastation wrought by America’s grinding employment crisis. As the treasurer of a construction union in southern Nevada, the state with the highest unemployment in the country, Enns has watched as friends and colleagues—the bricklayers, electricians and drywallers who thrived during Las Vegas’s housing boom—struggle to move on to other careers. Few succeed. Many have simply given up hope. “When you look at the unemployment rate during the Great Depression, we’re beyond that in the construction industry here in Las Vegas,” he says. “We’ve got close to 70 per cent unemployment, so for us, the economy is extremely depressed.”

When the financial crisis tipped America into a deep recession in 2007, it was tempting to draw comparisons to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Those fears subsided once the stock market pulled out of its nosedive and America’s economy began to grow again, albeit at a crawl. It was a brief respite. Four years later, American towns and cities remain overrun with millions of unemployed workers even as the economy risks slipping back into reverse. It raises the question whether the U.S. ever really emerged from recession in the first place. Instead, some are suggesting those early fears may have been justified after all: the United States appears to be in the throes of an outright jobs depression.

Earlier this month, Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at Berkeley and the secretary of labour in the Clinton administration, said the current crisis is an extension of the “depression” that began in December 2007. Meanwhile, Richard Posner, a high-profile judge in the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and regular political and economic commentator, said it’s time for America to give up any false hopes that the economy is on a path to recovery. “If we were being honest with ourselves, we would call this a depression,” he wrote in the New Republic. “That would certainly better convey both the severity of our problems, and the fact that those problems have no evident solutions.”

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Is Obama finished?

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, September 19, 2011 at 10:20 AM - 53 Comments

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Two and a half years into Barack Obama’s presidency, Obamamania has given way to Obamamisery. Fourteen million Americans are out of work. The unemployment rate remains stuck above nine per cent. The net number of new jobs created last month was exactly zero. And nearly one in six Americans live in poverty—the most in 27 years.

Sure, the former Illinois senator was dealt a raw hand—elected in the midst of an economic crisis and two long, costly wars, at the burst of a credit and real estate bubble that would take years to unwind. In his inaugural address, the new President acknowledged “a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable.” But Obama had promised to be the man of hope and change. “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America,” he told the millions people who had travelled from around the country and the globe to witness him take office and end the era of George W. Bush.

In January 2009, the unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent and Obama’s approval ratings were over 60 per cent. The question that framed his presidency was whether he would lead the country out of crisis the way Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the country out of the Great Depression, or whether he would become the next Jimmy Carter—a weak, one-term president done in by economic malaise and failures abroad.

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And if you don’t get in…

By Josh Dehaas - Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 1:45 PM - 0 Comments

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Roughly three-quarters of medical school applicants are rejected each year. Bummer. Luckily for them, wannabe doctors have better alternatives than ever. These four professional health care programs can be completed in just a few years, are in high demand, and pay well directly out of school. That means graduates can start paying off their student loans while medical residents are still driving beat-up old cars to 24-hour shifts.

Health Care Manager

The Job: Health care managers work in hospitals, medical clinics and nursing homes where they direct teams of health care providers. Their job is to make sure patients get excellent care and, simultaneously, that Canadians get good value for the nearly $200 billion they spend on health care each year.

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Rick Perry: number one with a bullet

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 11:00 AM - 3 Comments

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Barack Obama’s approval ratings of 43 per cent are the lowest of his presidency—as low as George W. Bush’s in his second term. The number of net new jobs the gasping American economy created in August was exactly zero. And on a sunny afternoon in a meticulously manicured suburb of Manchester, N.H., a state that plays a key role in picking presidents, several hundred Republican voters have gathered to hear from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the man who has vaulted to the lead of a raucous race to oust the President. The crowd skews somewhat grey-haired and more than a little country-clubby. Men sport khakis and button-downs, the women tailored dresses and high heels. Tidy white golf carts shuttle guests from their cars to a white tent that has been set up on grounds studded with American flags.

Even among this well-heeled group there is fear about where the country is headed—financially, politically, and even metaphysically. “The country, the people have lost their faith,” says Joyce Gardiner, a 68-year-old retired marketer from Londonderry. “Obama,” she purses her lips, “is inept.” James Shephard, 57, who says he lost his job at a plant that manufactured bomb-disposal equipment, is here to take pictures of the event for a Tea Party group he recently joined. “The vice is squeezing tighter and tighter,” he says. “People say they have to do something before the boat goes over the cliff.”

A murmur of excitement runs through the crowd as the governor arrives. Perry is tanned, square-jawed and sporting the salt-and-pepper mane that gave him the nickname Governor Goodhair. Along with his blue shirt and khakis, he sports some Texas flair: black ostrich leather shoes and a gold-tipped belt bearing a buckle embossed with a large “R.” Perry smiles broadly with a wink here, a thumbs-up there, as a glowing introduction is read out: the son of tenant farmers, Air Force veteran, still married to his high school sweetheart, and governor of the state that created 40 per cent of all the new jobs in America since 2009. “A person of action,” sums up the host. Perry takes the podium with the swagger of a man who has been governor for a decade (he took over when George W. Bush moved to the White House), who has never lost an election (he switched his affiliation from the Democrats to Republicans in the 1980s as they ascended in Texas), and who carries a concealed weapon (the .380 laser-sighted Ruger came in handy last year when, while jogging, he shot and killed a coyote who threatened the family dog.)

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Canada lost jobs in August

By macleans.ca - Friday, September 9, 2011 at 11:45 AM - 0 Comments

The Canadian job market was weaker than expected in August, with jobs disappearing for the first time since March. Employers cut 5,500 jobs last month, pushing the unemployment rate up slightly to 7.3 per cent, according to Statistics Canada. Despite the setback in job numbers, 233,000 jobs have been created over the past year, while the overall employment rate rose 1.3 per cent. On top of that, full-time jobs have grown by 2.2 per cent and part-time positions have shrunk by 2.3 per cent. Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, speaking in Marseilles, France, where he is attending a Group of Seven meeting, called the overall growth in full time positions “encouraging.” Still, August’s job shrinkage comes amid continued economic woes in Europe and the United States. Speaking Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the government would be “flexible” in its economic approach, potentially leaving the door open to some job-creating stimulus spending should job numbers repeat last month’s decline. For 15 to 24 year olds, the jobless rate this summer was 17.2 per cent, up from 16.9 per cent a year ago.

The Globe and Mail

The 2012 election campaign starts now

By John Parisella - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 1:19 PM - 4 Comments

Conventional wisdom holds that a presidential campaign begins in earnest right after Labour Day weekend in a presidential election year—a full year away from now. This is notably when public campaign finance provisions kick in. However, this year, with Republican candidate Mitt Romney announcing his jobs program today and Barack Obama presenting his own version two days from now, it feels more like we’ve already entered the final sprint of the 2012 presidential cycle. Continue…

Jobless rate falls to 7.2%

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 5, 2011 at 12:16 PM - 0 Comments

Canada’s economy showed conflicting numbers in July, as its jobless rate fell to 7.2 per cent while the economy added 7,100 new jobs. Statistics Canada said Friday that the main reason the unemployment rate dropped is because nearly 29,000 people left their jobs and weren’t looking for work anymore. However, employment gains were weaker than the 15,000 to 20,000 new jobs analysts were expecting. Ontario saw posted job losses in July, while Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador reported job gains. The other provinces’ job rates remained unchanged.

CBC News

My husband's job? Well, um…

By Rebecca Eckler - Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 12:05 PM - 23 Comments

Peter Cade/Iconica/Getty Images

“What is it I’m supposed to say you do again?” I ask my boyfriend as we head out to see friends. “Just say I own my own software company,” he says, which is true. But it’s a very specialized software company, focusing on registration for the “conference and trade show industry.” I’m still not sure what that means, though I have rehearsed my lines.

I’m not the only one who has a hard time explaining or understanding what my partner does. When I posted on Facebook recently that he was headed off to do his “something-something” job in Washington, numerous women replied, admitting to being in the same clueless boat I was. “I can’t even remember the current title of my hubby. So don’t worry about it,” wrote one. Another replied, “I had a guy like that once. I tried to explain to people what he did but in the end gave up and boiled it down to, ‘He goes to an office tower in a suit and comes home with money.’ ” Still another suggested I just “say he’s in business.” This woman added, “Gone are the days when everyone had one job responsibility or title.” I’ll say.

“Not knowing, understanding, or being able to say what your husband does is very this-generation,” says Sari Friedman, an HR consultant and career coach. “The landscape has changed so much. Roles are more specific these days and more complicated to explain.”

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Unemployment hits lowest level in two years

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 10, 2011 at 12:42 PM - 0 Comments

Canada’s unemployment rate hit its lowest level in two years last month, falling to 7.4 per cent, down 0.2 points from April. The news wasn’t all good, however—since the economy added a modest 22,300 jobs, the decline in unemployment was mostly attributed to fewer people looking for work. Still, employment has grown by 273,000 jobs over the past year and job growth has averaged 32,700 a month so far this year.

The Globe and Mail

A job-creating election

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 3:40 PM - 12 Comments

Eric Beauchesne surveys the economic ramifications of an election.

In fact, Statistics Canada’s analysis of changes in employment in the wake of the October 2008 election campaign, suggests an election would create thousands of temporary jobs. ”With the federal election in mid-October, there were large employment gains in public administration, spread across most provinces,” Statistics Canada said in its analysis of what was a 40,000 increase in full-time employment in October 2008. ”Most of the increase was among occupations related to the election process,” it added, noting there were no job gains in other areas to explain the surge in employment that month.

Inshoring jobs

By Colin Campbell - Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 10:08 AM - 1 Comment

Ym Yik/Epa/Corbis;

For decades, manufacturing jobs offshored from North America have fuelled the massive Chinese economy. But as wages in China rise, at least one firm is taking the next logical step to hold its cost advantage: “inshoring” jobs away from coastal manufacturing areas to even cheaper provinces inland.

Foxconn Technology, one of the world’s largest electronics makers, has started shifting 200,000 workers from its home base in the coastal city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, to lower-cost provinces. The company plans to eventually move all of its manufacturing jobs out of Shenzhen and turn its facilities there into “an engineering campus,” reports the Financial Times.

The company has struggled recently with a series of suicides at its plants, which it responded to by raising wages. But it is also credited with helping transform Shenzhen into a global manufacturing centre, and it is expected to similarly boost the economies of new regions it pushes into.

Do-it-yourselfism

By Kate Lunau - Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 10:08 AM - 4 Comments

Photograph by Rick Collins

After graduating from the University of Western Ontario in 2004, long-time friends Joe Facciolo and Skai Dalziel, both from Barrie, Ont., set off to travel the world. By the time they came home, in 2008, the job market had toughened considerably. “I was looking for work in alternative energy, but nothing really materialized,” says Dalziel, 30. Chatting about their travels, and how hard it was to find a good restaurant in a new city, the two friends were seized by a business idea. “We said, we’re young and we don’t have a lot of responsibility,” Dalziel says. “We figured it was a good time to give it a go.”

That fall, they moved to Whistler, B.C., where they knew the tourism market was strong. By November, Whistler Tasting Tours—which provides guided tours that visit some of Whistler’s best restaurants, providing a multi-course dinner in one evening—was born. “One of the biggest challenges was securing ?nancing,” Dalziel says. “Banks weren’t interested in getting involved.” The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF), a charitable organization that works with entrepreneurs aged 18 to 34, gave them a $15,000 loan, and Whistler Tasting Tours was profitable within its first year; now they’re talking about branching out to other locations. Running a business, “you’re letting go of your social life,” he says. “But it’s really rewarding.”

Facciolo and Dalziel are two of countless twentysomethings who’ve avoided a more traditional career path, launching their own business instead of working for somebody else. Driven by a tight job market, the number of tools available online, and a growing sense of do-it-yourselfism, entrepreneurship is booming among students and recent grads. And with role models like Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old billionaire founder of Facebook, they’re in good company.

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This week in opinion polls

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 9:07 AM - 1 Comment

Atlantic provinces: Turns out those on Canada’s East Coast are the most prudish, at least when it comes to public displays of affection. According to a recent survey, only 63 per cent of residents there say they feel comfortable with couples kissing in public—the national average is 77 per cent. And Ontario topped Quebec as the nation’s most immodest province. Eighty-three per cent of Ontarians have no qualms with kissing in front of an audience. Only 77 per cent in Quebec said the same. Uniting Canadians was a common belief (held by 97 per cent) that fresh breath is essential for a great kiss. Of course, that wasn’t an issue for the 10 per cent who declared that they never kiss their partner.

Ontario: Ontarians are the most stressed about jobs. Twenty-three per cent say that they or someone in their family are anxious about losing their job. That’s slightly higher than the national average (20 per cent) and eight percentage points more than those in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta: A majority (62 per cent) of residents find the idea of federal funding for professional sports facilities irksome. That’s a bit higher than the national average (55 per cent) who oppose the federal government digging into public coffers to build arenas and stadiums for professional sports teams. Meanwhile, 53 per cent of Quebecers support spending public money on such ventures.

British Columbia: An overwhelming majority of British Columbians still holds fond memories of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, but a smaller share feel that hosting the Olympics was a good idea. About a year since the opening ceremony, 81 per cent of residents say that the Olympics were a success—a level of enthusiasm that has held steady since the end of the Games. But 28 per cent feel that picking up the tab for the Games wasn’t worth it.

Head of the household

By Rachel Mendleson - Monday, March 15, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 14 Comments

Photograph by Yvonne Berg

The past few years have been difficult for Brian and Karen Rae. After working at K Tool & Die for more than a decade, Brian, 62, was laid off from the Oakville, Ont., plant, which made parts for the auto industry, in December 2008. At the time, Brian, who had been a toolmaker for 38 years, was earning about $58,000—a decent salary, he says, but not enough to live comfortably. “You can’t make it on one family income anymore.” As such, Karen has long worked full-time at Zellers, where she earns less than $20,000 a year assisting customers in the men’s department. The importance of her job has been “brought to the forefront” since he lost his, says Brian, along with the fact that surviving on it alone is impossible. While he completes a government-funded course in home renovation (he gave up on toolmaking after distributing 100 resumés to no avail), they’ve had to dip into their RRSPs. “It’s been a bit of a struggle to keep up with everything,” he says.

As Ottawa celebrates the country’s official return to economic growth, the Raes are not the only ones for whom recovery remains an abstract notion. Dubbed the “man-cession” or “he-session” for the way in which it snuffed out male-dominated manufacturing jobs, the downturn has dramatically altered the dynamic of many working class families. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, men suffered 76 per cent of the overall job losses; Statistics Canada numbers show that in 2009, male employment levels dipped by a total of 249,000 over the previous year, compared to a decline of 28,000 for women.

The reality today is that a middle class existence, more often than not, means a two-income family, with more women assuming the role of primary breadwinner than ever before. But a stubborn fact, buried under decades of gender equality and diversity training, has resurfaced: despite comprising more than half the workforce and outpacing the educational achievements of men, women still make less. What’s happened since the recession, says Barb Byers, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, “is the men have looked [at what their wives are earning] and said, ‘Wait a minute, these are really crappy jobs. You can’t feed a family on this.’ ” It’s a reality that, when combined with the downturn and the shrinking middle class, is wreaking havoc on family finances.

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Econowatch

By Steve Maich - Friday, October 16, 2009 at 8:30 AM - 1 Comment

The Canadian economy has answered a lot of questions for us in the past few months. Our housing market stumbled, but didn’t go into free fall. Our mining, manufacturing and construction industries suffered, but did not collapse. Retail sales slowed, but you won’t see row upon row of boarded-up stores when you venture out holiday shopping next month. And, of course, it turns out our banks are a fair bit more solid than many gave them credit for.

All of that must qualify as welcome and somewhat surprising news, and the latest bit of encouragement came last week with the release of September jobs figures. As the kids headed back to school, the employment situation in the U.S. continued to worsen—another 263,000 jobs vapourized as the world’s largest economy searches for a way to staunch the bleeding. But in Canada, 31,000 jobs were created, a second straight month of improvement, far outpacing even the rosiest projections on Bay Street. Continue…

The war for workers

By Rachel Mendleson - Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:15 AM - 28 Comments

Jacob Gamache never thought he’d end up in the public sector. “There is a stereotype that the government of Canada is very slow,” he says. Seeking a faster-paced, more competitive environment, Gamache used his master’s degree in sports administration to land a job in 2005 with a private, non-profit organization in Ottawa. Though officially the manager of communications and events, Gamache, now 28, says he was somewhat of a “jack of all trades,” creating pamphlets, updating the website, and offering tech support to his co-workers. “I got an opportunity to learn a lot,” he says of the job, which required plenty of overtime. “You come in in the morning at 7:30 or eight, and you’re not too sure when you’ll go home at night. When you do, the laptop comes with you. And the cellphone.”

By the fall of 2007, Gamache was ready for “something a bit more stable.” On a friend’s suggestion, he applied to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), a federal funding agency—and one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers this year. He took a job with the agency in May 2008 and hasn’t looked back. On top of solid benefits, an enviable pension and a higher salary, he says there’s plenty of opportunity to advance. (Despite his misgivings about the limits of bureaucracy, he’s already been promoted to project officer in a little more than a year.) What’s more: while the recent economic downturn has seen hundreds of thousands of Canadians lose their jobs, he’s had “no worries” about holding on to his. When asked whether he would consider returning to the private sector, Gamache says, “It would be a very tough sell.” Continue…

When the going gets tough

By Kate Lunau - Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:10 AM - 4 Comments

After the video game development studio where Geoff Coates was working abruptly shut down, the Vancouver-based art director found himself looking for a new gig. He heard about another local company, Next Level Games Inc., from a friend. “The more I talked to these guys, the more I wanted to work here,” says Coates. The firm’s positive office environment, as well as the collaboration he saw, appealed to him. After spending more than 10 years in the industry, the 40-year-old says, “it became more about the people than the job title.” He took a job at Next Level Games—one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers—three months ago, and he hasn’t looked back.

Attracting and retaining highly skilled workers is crucial, especially during a recession when “you need your best and brightest,” says Richard Yerema, managing editor of Mediacorp Canada Inc., which compiles the list of Canada’s Top 100 Employers. With all the company closures and layoffs of late, there’s no shortage of unclaimed talent on the market. In good times, prospective employers could afford to offer fat signing bonuses and generous benefit packages to lure the best of them, but in today’s tough economic climate, firms have to be more inventive. By offering things like in-house training, volunteer opportunities and flexible work hours, companies on the Top 100 list are proving it’s possible to offer perks that people want, without breaking the bank. Continue…

A Maclean’s special report: Canada’s Top 100 Employers

By Joe Chidley - Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 5 Comments

The talent war is over. Talent lost. Or at least it might seem that way to anybody who’s been watching the ranks of the jobless swell over the past year. How many of us, if we haven’t already lost our jobs, don’t know somebody close to us who has? Even among the employed, the relative glory days of the mid-2000s—the yearly raises and big-bucks bonuses and company retreats—have given way to layoffs, pay cuts and creeping pessimism. And small wonder. The unemployment rate in Canada is nearing nine per cent; in the United States, our largest trading partner and the epicentre of the financial meltdown that started this mess, it’s nearly 10 per cent. And here’s the really bad news: few observers think the recovery, when it begins, will translate into a jobs bonanza any time soon. Sure, U.S. Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke has declared that the recession is “very likely” over. But as Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, recently noted: “If you’re looking for a job, it sure doesn’t feel like the recession is over.”

Yet the bad news about jobs doesn’t tell the whole story. Need proof? Then just take a look at this year’s list of Canada’s Top 100 Employers. Continue…

Fear factor

By Cathy Gulli - Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 11:40 AM - 7 Comments

Despite signs that the global economy is recovering from the recession, many people are still afraid of losing their jobs. A recent study in the U.K. indicates that workers are so terrified about being fired, they’re eschewing sick days. Forty-three per cent of Brits say they haven’t once called in sick this year for fear of seeming like a slacker—that’s a 20 per cent increase over 2008. For some, no ailment is too severe, including a migraine, bad back or swine flu.

Canadians are feeling similarly insecure: two recent polls, one by Harris/Decima and another by Desjardins Financial Security, revealed that more than one third of Canadians still worry about being fired because of the economic downturn. And if they’re looking for hope, they won’t find it in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s assertion earlier this month that “we will have a persisting unemployment problem well into 2010.” It’s no wonder that across the country anxious workers have been skipping vacation or clocking overtime in an effort to appear dedicated, capable and indispensable to their bosses. Continue…

A lost decade of growth

By Jason Kirby - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 1:28 PM - 4 Comments

General Electric has always been a potent symbol for business in America. From the simple light bulb to cutting edge jet engines, the company has embodied the country’s rise to dominance in the world of innovation. But like America, GE underwent a huge transformation over the past 20 years, moving further away from its traditional business of “making stuff” and pushing deeper into the world of financial engineering. Why sell washing machines when you could make more pushing subprime mortgages? Now the company’s finance arm— like America—is struggling with huge losses.

Given the company’s evolution, when CEO Jeff Immelt gave a speech in Japan recently about the challenges facing GE, he might well have been speaking for the U.S. as a whole. Which is a scary thought, because during that speech, he voiced concern about the future prospects of economic growth itself: “As consumers around the world get more conservative,” he said, “we think that overall economic growth—not just for a year or two but even post the recession—overall economic growth may be slower.” Continue…

Dissent up as millions lose jobs in China

By Patricia Treble - Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 9:20 AM - 1 Comment

China has long had an unofficial compact with its people: don’t ask for political reform, and in return, we’ll provide you with jobs. But as the global economic crisis tightens its grip on the nation, that agreement is under severe strain.

On Monday, the government revealed that 20 million migrant workers have returned to their homes in the poverty-stricken countryside after losing their jobs at urban factories and construction sites. Frighteningly, Yiping Huang, an economist for Citigroup, thinks that the number could soon double. In an effort to stave off widespread unrest, the Communist party has promised to pump at least US$585 billion into the economy.

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