Unemployed Chinese workers: the survivors, the worried young and the discouraged old

Discusses the results of a study that examined whether the impact of economic reform in China, with its attendant downsizing of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and consequent unemployment, on Chinese workers varies according to individual characteristics in three domains: social background characteristics (age, gender, marital status and education), the perceived need for new coping skills (job search and financial coping skills), and financial and psychological distress. Reports that, as expected, the nature of the impact of unemployment as a result of SOE downsizing depends on the individual's life stage and status, access to personal and social resources, and psychological response to the change. Identifies three sub-groups of affected workers - 'survivors', 'worried young workers', and 'discouraged older workers' - and observes that age and education are particularly salient in defining cluster membership. Considers the implications of these findings for human resource policies suggesting, for example, that the 'worried young workers' subgroup represents a key group for the attention of human resource policies and practices since they are most concerned to learn new coping skill and most distressed by their circumstances.