Job Guarantee as sustainable development policy: balancing China’s economic development and ecological civilization

This chapter examines the general advantages of a Green Job Guarantee (JG) as a sustainable development policy and then inquires about the potential and feasibility of a Green JG for China as a case study. A JG offers an unorthodox yet logical solution to unemployment: eliminate joblessness by directly creating jobs; then, these new jobs not only can be designed to achieve ecological purposes (i.e., reforestation to address desertification) but also contribute to economic growth (as JG workers’ wages translate into consumer spending, business sales, revenue, profits, and investments). The chapter articulates how China is ready for and would especially benefit from a Green JG to coordinate its economic growth, employment, structural adjustments, and environmental sustainability. Especially, it examines the sustainability and functionality of Chinese government deficits by constructing and examining China’s sector balances. It is shown that a Chinese Green JG “costing” 1.58 percent of GDP is sufficient to eliminate China’s entire urban unemployment and that the increased central government deficit, as a result, is not only sustainable but also functional for the Chinese economy.