Change and continuity in China's urban workforce: Recent trends

Introduction China’s economic reforms over the past three decades have facilitated the fastest economic growth in the world. In the process, they have transformed China’s labour market from a ‘redistributive’ state socialist system, under which goods were allocated primarily by government officials (‘redistributors’) according to plans, to a market or an ‘economy with market allocation’. These changes have influenced many aspects of China’s workforce, the structure of its economic interests, employees’ well-being and lifestyles and their labour mobility patterns.