Population Movement, Labor Force Absorption, and Urbanization in China

Concern in China with problems of rural-urban population distribution, rates of urban growth, and relations between employment opportunities and rural and urban development have resulted in a firmly articulated policy regarding population movement. Permanent movement from rural to urban places and from smaller to larger urban places is strictly controlled. Yet the pressures of a large surplus labor force and the introduction of the new economic responsibility system have led to a substantial increase in population mobility, most of it temporary. Such circulation has become a major mechanism to allow rural areas to cope with their surplus labor and to raise rural standards of living. It has also allowed urban places to gain the skilled service workers and unskilled construction workers that are in short supply without putting undue pressure on urban facilities.