On the Emergence of Labour Redundancy in China's State Industry: Findings from a 1980-1994 Data Panel

The need to lay off redundant employees emerged as an important policy issue in urban China in the 1990s. The degree of over-manning can be estimated by comparing estimates of the marginal product of labor with estimates of the full wage, including bonuses, subsidies, and non-cash benefits. We present estimates from a panel of 752 industrial SOEs for the years 1980-94. These estimates show a rising trend of redundancy with substantial differences among industries. They confirm both out earlier finding that over-manning was not general in the pre-reform era, and the prevailing view that it was a severe problem in the 1990s.