The Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform, an elite Party policy-making body, stressed Tuesday the need to increase the number of technical workers in China.
China's skilled workers have exceeded the 165 million mark, accounting for 21.3% of its labour force, but the number of highly-skilled personnel remains small, making up for 47.91 million or 6.2% of the country's total, according to China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
Besides, employee dislocation and a skewed talent structure demand attention. Supply and demand mismatch is high for skilled workers, as the rising job vacancies-to-seekers ratio of 1.5:1 over the years shows. The figure stands at more than 2:1 for highly-skilled workers.
While China's top talent is capable of competing with that from developed countries, its high-end industries such as automobile, precision instrumentation and watch-making, lags due to shortage of technical workers.
“Technical workers and high-skill talent both form the foundation for economic growth and technical breakthrough, hence no progress can be made in advanced technology without their support,” said Zhang Qizuo, the director of G20 and Emerging Countries Economic Development Strategy Research Center.
Zhou Tianyong, deputy director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies of the Central Party School, said technical talent structure in China remains unbalanced, thus holding back its improvement and weakening the advantage created by a skilled work force.
Some analysts said the key to improving supply of technical workers lies in vocation training. The government needs to step up efforts to cultivate highly-skilled talent and provide them with a wider space for personal development, thereby increasing their income.
