SARS has only had a "limited'' negative impact on the job market in the Chinese capital, according to a survey published Monday by the Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau.

"Although 53.3 per cent of the 2,235 organizations interviewed have not operated as normal since the end of April, when the epidemic broke out in Beijing, there has not been much change to their employment of staff,'' said bureau official Hu Xinjie.

Beijing's total employed population was 217,000 at the end of March and 214,000 at the end of May, when SARS was effectively controlled in the capital.

Of all those organizations interviewed, said Hu, only 8.4 per cent said they have cut jobs as a result of the epidemic.

Correspondingly, local residents' incomes have not been greatly affected during this period.

Statistics indicate the per capita income of local employees was 1,497 yuan (US$180.8) in May, roughly the same as the average of for previous months of this year.

"Employees of as many as three quarters of the over 2,000 organizations that we have interviewed said they have suffered no decrease in their salaries from the epidemic,'' said Xu Jingchao, another official from the bureau.

"Some of them even enjoyed an increase to a certain degree due to various allowances, such as the one for SARS-preventing medicines.''
Against this background, Xu noted that State-owned enterprises had the advantage over other types.

Specifically, the percentages of those witnessing no reduction in staff salaries among State-owned enterprises, co-operative enterprises and enterprises of other types are respectively 79.6 per cent, 65.5 per cent and 75.6 per cent. The last category includes such varieties as foreign companies, joint ventures and private enterprises.

As an explanation, Xu said the fundamental reason for the comparable stability of the local job market during the SARS attack is the government regulation which stipulates that no staff could be fired solely as a result of the SARS outbreak.

"Although many industries, such as tourism and restaurants, have suffered severe blows, most employees maintained their staff in spite of reduced business and paid, in most cases, a normal salary,'' said Xu.

According to the report, the group suffering from heavy unemployment in this period were temporary labourers and hourly-paid workers in such fields as restaurants, hotels and construction, comprising 77 per cent of those losing jobs due to SARS in Beijing.

"This group might still have a hard time in finding a job in the post-SARS period, for only 12.5 per cent of the interviewed enterprises indicated a plan to recruit more in the near future,'' said Hu.

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