With 13 million urban Chinese expected to be unemployed each year, those most at risk of joblessness are asking why so many fall through the country's unemployment safety net.

At least 24 million urban residents will be looking for jobs annually in the future, but there are likely to be only 11 million openings, said Minister of Labor and Social Security Tian Chengping in an interview with the Party-owned Study Times.

College graduates, rural migrant workers, the self-employed and private sector employees all fear a future with no job and no support.

Workers who have paid into the country's unemployment insurance system for more than a year can receive hundreds of yuan in subsidies if they lose their jobs, but jobless graduates are excluded.

"Professional training is what graduates need most," says Zhang Youshan, director of the unemployment insurance office with the Labor and Social Security Department of Shandong Province. He would like to see the unemployment insurance fund training.

This year, 4.13 million students graduated from institutions of higher learning, but one in three will be jobless within the year, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

Migrant rural laborers also need better protection.

Employers of migrant workers are legally responsible for paying their unemployment insurance premiums.

Despite government support, only 443,000 migrant workers received unemployment allowances in 2004 out of an estimated total of 120 million, says He Ping, president of the ministry's National Institute for Social Insurance.

Many migrant workers are unaware of the benefits and their employers tend to avoid payments to reduce costs, says Zhang.

Experts have urged the government to tighten monitoring of insurance payments and to raise awareness among migrant workers.

The self-employed are also overlooked when they seek allowances.

"That should not be covered by unemployment subsidies, but is hard to supervise due to inadequate management," says Zhang, referring to people fraudulently obtaining benefits.

Many social security departments lack technical support for information collection and management, making the signing of new job contracts and renewal of insurance payments the only ways to recognize reemployment, says Zhang Bin, director of the supervision office with the Labor and Social Security Department of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Meanwhile, unregistered employees and the self-employed are difficult to manage, as the country has yet to set up individual accounts for unemployment insurance.

China's unemployment insurance premiums are paid by enterprises and institutions collectively along with individual payments by their employees.

The low proportion of insured workers has been overshadowed by the robust growth of the unemployment insurance fund, which rose more than 30 percent to 51.1 billion yuan (US$6.4 billion) last year.

Of the 760-million labor force in China, only about 100 million were covered by unemployment insurance at the end of last year.

Private enterprises see unemployment insurance as a burden, while many workers fear annoying their bosses by asking for it, says Li Yuanzhi, deputy director of the unemployment insurance office of the Shandong Labor and Social Security Department.

Some local governments turn a blind eye to the situation for fear of discouraging investment and putting a damper on the development of the private economy, says Li.

Meanwhile, employees of state-owned enterprises with steady profits are reluctant to pay, considering unemployment unlikely and the premiums merely a donation to the poor, Li says.

Experts say the payments should be adjusted to local commodity prices and minimum urban living allowances.

The law requires payments to be less than the local minimum wage, but more than urban minimum living allowances.

(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2006)