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Abstract
In this paper, we examine the effects of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) on China's human resources, its labour-market and its level of employment and unemployment, looking specifically at what was one of its economically most vulnerable points, the hotel industry. The paper hypothesizes that the greatest impact would be on human resources in the service-industries and on particular sub-sectors, such as employment in hotels, located in three main cities in the PRC, in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, catering to both overseas as well as domestic tourism. It tentatively concludes that the almost dramatic demand and supply ‘shocks’ may have directly affected both the demand for and the supply of labour in the sub-sector, with discernable employment consequences.
Notes
1 Jiang Yanyong, former chief of surgery for the #301 military hospital in Beijing and a Communist Party member, made the disclosure in an e-mail to a state-run television station. The Wall Street Journal reported the disclosure on 9 April 2003.
2 The two officials were Party Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Zhang Wenkang, and Deputy Party Secretary of Beijing, Meng Xuenong.
3 In recent years, income generated by tourism during week-long holidays, such as the Labour Day Holiday and National Day, though as high as 30 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion), accounted for less than 0.3 per cent of the total economy.
4 It was noted that the telecommunications and medical industries are in need of labour, as are shopping websites, restaurants with delivery services and express delivery companies. China's economic hub, Shanghai, is capitalizing on the situation, employing 15,000 laid-off workers in the public hygiene and environments fields. Liaoning, northeast China's important industrial base, planned to provide 100,000 jobs for laid-off workers.
5 China's actual FDI surpassed the United States for the first time in 2002 and became the world's largest. According to the Ministry of Commerce, it rose 12.51 per cent to US$52.74 billion. Actual FDI in China hit US$13.09 billion in the first quarter of 2003, up 56.7 per cent from a year earlier.
6 Jiuzhaigou was listed as a ‘world heritage site’ by UNESCO in 1992. It joined the international protection network of ‘man and biosphere’ in 1997. Yellow Dragon joined ‘man and biosphere’ in 2000.
7 China's Fifth Population Census reported 121.07 million internal migrants as of the year 2000. See 2000 Nian Zhongguo Nongcun Liudong Renkou Xin Tezheng (New Characteristics of Rural Floating Population in China in 2000) published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (Citation2001). Among them, more than 70 per cent were rural–urban migrants, equivalent to 85 million, though a more commonly cited figure in official speeches and public media is 100 million. These migrants are at their most economically active ages – almost 70 per cent are between the ages of 15 to 49 and 20 per cent are between 25 and 29.
8 China's employment population reached 737.4 million in 2002, absorbing 7.2 million more employees than the previous year, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
9 In terms of each industry's contribution to the increase of China's employment, the three have been largely the same in 1979. But by 2000, the primary, secondary and tertiary industries have each contributed 37, minus 39 and 105 per cent to the employment increase in the year. The service industry has become the major channel for new labour absorption.
10 The evolution of a nascent labour market has changed both institutions and behaviour. See Warner, M. [ed.] (2005) Human Resource Management in China Revisited, London: Routledge.
11 South China's Guangdong Province, the first area hit by SARS, publicised tax exemption policies that were expected to trim 900 million yuan from tax revenue. Other areas, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Shanxi Province and Henan Province, have followed suit with similar tax policies.
