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After taking over as chief executive in June 2015, Mr Ma announced a sweeping array of reforms, including higher minimum wages, a higher minimum turnover allowance (MTA), and greater involvement at all levels of business to support innovation, business development and growth. While the biggest gains have been concentrated in the “creativity sector” — including higher base rate, an expansion of the digital economy, and more flexible and automated work, with a focus on “smart jobs” for the smart worker — the number of jobless people has fallen to 2.3 million.
Yet those changes may not have been enough to meet the demand in industries such as financial services and manufacturing, where joblessness is also rising. Analysts and experts who forecast a rebound, however, say China must do more to ease its workforce and boost wages and benefits.
“The economy needs strong productivity improvement without hurting workers’ wages,” said Zhang Yan, an economist and chief economist of the Centre for Economic Research, a business education outfit.
Yet such reform proposals also face opposition in China’s leadership. Mr Ma, a member of the Communist party’s powerful Central Committee, has been called at times to deliver a “speech” on economic policy “to give the people a clear sense of the Communist party’s direction”, according to some reports last year. Other reports said China’s leadership does not have the political courage to back such radical reforms and is looking for a more gradual approach.
As part of the economic stimulus package announced in March 2015, a two-thirds pay rise for all workers was introduced in April last year, replacing a two-thirds pay rise of the equivalent of at least 150 yuan per day with a salary of at least 160 yuan, which is now common across China. While workers are benefiting from this, the reforms have also come under fire from the opposition at home, led by the Communist party’s most powerful man, Xi Jinping, who has called for an acceleration to the reforms. A few weeks ago, Mr Xi’s labour ministry said it would push for more pay rises and the implementation of productivity, with a view “to meet the needs of capital”.
Some economists have also pointed to job growth, a long-standing weakness in developing economies such as China, not slowing since 2008. “We’ve been getting stronger jobs growth. Why have we been getting less jobs and productivity growth?” asked Zheng Hao, a senior economist