The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is supporting the provincial government with a $400,000 technical assistance grant. The funds will be used to conduct studies and analysis of the PES and labor market, with the goal of producing policy recommendations to improve the delivery of employment services for job seekers, especially those from rural areas.

“A better PES can help facilitate more effective rural-urban migration, which will contribute to more balanced development by bridging the gap between rural and urban areas,” said Jazira Asanova, Education Specialist in ADB's East Asia Department

Over the past 20 years around 120 million workers in the PRC have migrated from rural to urban areas in search of better paid work and this high influx of migrants is expected to continue in coming years. In response to the strong demand, as well as the changing labor and employment environments in the PRC, the efficiency and effectiveness of the PES needs to be improved.

In Sichuan province, the Wenchuan earthquake of May 2008 had a devastating impact on the delivery of all social services, including employment. As a result, the government is seeking to strengthen and expand its PES to ensure that job seekers from rural areas have adequate and relevant information about employment opportunities.

The technical assistance will be used to analyze potential options to improve the effectiveness of the PES system, including making it more user friendly for women and disabled persons. It will include analysis of the current labor market, capacity constraints in the PES system, service staff levels, the policy environment, market information systems, public-private partnerships, and gender issues.

ADB's grant, from its Technical Assistance Special Fund, makes up around 83% of the full project cost of $480,000, with the provincial government providing $80,000 equivalent. The Sichuan Employment Service and Administration Bureau is the executing agency for the project, which will be carried out in three phases over an eleven-month period from April 2010 to March 2011.#