400,000 Chinese Lose Jobs in Economic Downturn

China’s controversial retrenchment program and a continuing market slump forced 400,000 people out of work in April, an official newspaper reported Sunday.

The English-language China Daily said workers in collectively owned enterprises had been hardest hit. It called the outlook for employment in China “bleak across the board.” The gloomy assessment came despite recent reports by the state-owned media of an economic upturn.

Official reports cite rising production figures and revived market sales in praise of China’s continuing austerity program, which has brought the country to the brink of recession since its imposition in late 1988.

“The latest government statistics show that company chief executive officers and factory managers are having to slash their payrolls because of the current production and market slump,” the China Daily said.

The report said by April, China’s work force totalled 136.03 million, a drop of 1.4 million from year-end.

The China Daily cited figures from the State Statistical Bureau indicating that 1 million workers had retired while the remaining 400,000 were “forced out of work.”