China

China is the fastest growing economy in history, and while it has experienced challenges and obstacles, it continues to grow at a fast rate. The labor and trade policies in China have changed dramatically overtime, moving towards a more open-door policy that supports globalization.

Labor

China first reported their unemployment rate in 1984, which was just under 4 percent (UH Library Database). The rate has remained relatively steady throughout the time period from 1980-1990, increasing slightly in 1984. During this time period, China was reforming its economy. One of the reforms implemented was encouraging collectively owned services and industries, which helped younger portions of the population get jobs. Employment was also maintained by the government, allowing state-owned enterprises to retain the profits they made, instead of being forced to give them to the state (Country Studies). This allowed state-owned enterprises to give bonuses to their workers as an incentive to increase production, which helped reduce the income distribution gap. Also, the government began allowing free market farms to operate and gave special incentives to farms who produced rare commodities. As a result, farm income increased dramatically during this time period (Country Studies). China's high growth rates in GDP created a demand for capital and jobs. Because China has a large population and now had less restrictions on the trade of education and jobs, it was able to fuel the economic growth with a large supply of labor and capital. Still, labor shortages did occur during 2005 because highly skilled workers in China had more incentives to work in other countries that offered higher wages and more worker's rights . Also, China's population is so large that even a small percentage of unemployed workers still creates a large poor population. For example, according to UN standards, 150 million people were considered poor in China during 2009 (BBC). Also, many Chinese citizens...