A study of China's urban employment problems set in the context of
growth and fluctuations in the urban economy between 1949 and 1957. Its
main objectives are to analyse the size and determinants or urban
employment change, and to trace the evolution both of Chinese thinking
about employment and the institutions of labour control that reflected
this thinking in day-to-day administration. Important source materials
used in this book, many of which had not previously been used by western
scholars, include the journal of the Ministry of Labour and local
newspapers and journals. These materials are used to show the ways in
which the urban employment problem varied according to the geographical
location and level of administration from which it was viewed. Dr Howe
examines the changing urban economic environment and the dimensions of
urban employment and its evolution and relates them to the broader
understanding of economic change in China.