ABSTRACT
China’s economic reforms have gradually brought employment and wage determination in the urban sector closer to a market system. The private sector has played a pivotal role in this movement. Employment in the urban private sector has grown very rapidly over the past twenty years, especially since the 1990s. According to China’s State Statistical Bureau (SSB), the private sector, as defined in Chapter 1, accounted for more than 30 per cent of urban employment and more than 50 per cent of new urban employment in 1997. The 1998 data were less clear, as approximately 20 per cent of urban employees were not identified by sector (SSB 1999). By presuming this 20 per cent were all employed by privately owned firms, Hong Kong’s CEIC database attributed 47 per cent of urban employment to the private sector in 1998 (CEIC 1999).
