Results tagged “unemployment”

• China's Alibaba Adds Social Networking to E-commerce [PC World] "China's Alibaba Group has started mixing social-networking functions into its leading e-commerce platforms, a move it hopes will convince users to spend more time and money on Alibaba Web sites. Alibaba is crafting social-networking platforms specifically to complement two of its core operations. The beta version of a Web site with Facebook-style applications and a Twitter-style feed is being grafted onto Taobao.com."
• China, the world's factory--a photo tour [CNET Asia Blogs: The Tech Dynasty] "These images are from WethicA, a company that audits factories with an eye toward child labor, workers rights, health & safety, and wages. From the WethicA newsletter: "We are posting real untouched photos of factory working conditions from about one year ago. We have decided this summer to show you an important part of the job we do during audits by telling you why these pictures have been taken. Actually, an audit is much more investigative than ticking boxes off a questionaire. One has to walk in with an open mind ready to question everything in these situations and not only ask a list of predefined questions.""
• China's turning children against me: Kadeer [ABC News] "The children of exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer have gone on Chinese television criticising their mother. Two of Ms Kadeer's children and her brother were at first reported as having written letters blaming their mother for orchestrating recent violence in far western China. Now the two children, along with another son, have recorded interviews with Chinese television for a special program."

• HTC Releasing Three Android Phones In China [InformationWeek] "The company will have to remove Google Maps and tailor the operating system on the Hero, Magic, and Click to gain Chinese government approval. HTC will be bringing out three custom-tailored Android handsets for China by the end of the year, the smartphone maker said."
• Official says China's jobless situation 'very grave' despite improving economy [Los Angeles Times] "China's jobless situation is "very grave," with millions out of work due to the global crisis and the threat that unemployment might rise despite recent improvements in the economy, the government said Tuesday. Beijing is trying to create jobs for laid-off workers, new college graduates, migrants and others, said Wang Yadong, deputy director of job promotion at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security."
• Bret Stephens: China’s Pollution Problems Are a Result of Government Economic Control [WSJ] "A funny thing happened on the way to saving the world’s poor from the ravages of global warming. The poor told the warming alarmists to get lost. This spring, the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, led by former U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan, issued a report warning that “mass starvation, mass migration, and mass sickness” would ensue if the world did not agree to “the most ambitious international agreement ever negotiated” on global warming at a forthcoming conference in Copenhagen. But never mind about that. The more interesting kiss-off took place in New Delhi late last month, when Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that there was no way India would sign on to any global scheme to cap carbon emissions."

Suicides are already the main cause of college deaths in Shanghai and it looks like the terrible job market is only going to make that statistic more prominent. According to the Telegraph, a wave of suicides have swept the nation as one in three of this year's graduates ahve been unable to find a job. These recent out-of-college kids are being added to the 1.5 million from last year who are still out of work. While the government has been trying to combat the unemployment rate by offering positions as teachers or low-level officials in rural areas, those jobs hardly seem worth the four years of effort and tuition fees graduates racked up, especially if they did it to escape the countryside in the first place. It's a tough situation to weather and the only suggestion we can think of is that maybe one more piece of China's grand economic stimulus should be devoted to mental health helplines.

• Graduates retreat to rural China [Financial Times] "The Communist party has a long tradition of sending young intellectuals into China’s vast rural hinterland, often causing terrible suffering and disastrous economic consequences. But Chinese officials and analysts insist that, this time, things are different."
• Taxi agents threatened with violence [Shanghai Daily] "Wu Runyuan, a spokesman for the Shanghai Traffic Law Enforcement Team, said illegal taxi drivers had bribed janitors and the owners of small stores near the watchdog's office to tip them off when the traffic law enforcement team was going out on a raid. 'We even found a makeshift GPS system had been installed by a worker under one of our cars while it was in for routine repairs, so illegal drivers knew where the vehicle was at all times,' Wu said. 'Again, he was paid to do it.'"
• Chinese airline chief goes missing [Financial Times] "The head of a privately owned Chinese airline has disappeared after takeover talks with flag-carrier Air China broke down and Beijing grounded its fleet. The case is raising fears of a trend towards renationalisation in some sectors in China as state groups use their clout to swallow struggling private competitors."