Demand, Supply and Surplus of Agricultural Labor Force in China

Zhang Xinghua
Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China

Abstract:  China’s economy enjoys the prominent characteristics of a dual structure, with a severe surplus in the agricultural labor force. Scholars in China and overseas have conducted extensive research on the issue of labor surplus and have developed estimates on the size and percentage of surplus labor. The results, however, vary considerably due to the differences in methods and data sources. Based on existing research and using the National Agricultural Costs and Returns Compilation as the data source, this paper proposes that the size of the agricultural surplus labor force is only 8,520,000 persons, accounting for 2.1% of the total rural labor force.
Keywords: rural labor force, agricultural labor force, surplus labor force

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