Hey every body,

Living in a Chinese city you quickly realize how many people are employed in jobs which would be judged totally needless or don’t even exist in Europe. E.g. within the police you can find several different kinds in different uniforms. Often I see teenagers in green uniforms guarding parks. But the job which I think is most senseless is the one of the elevator girl.
What do you think? Is it a god idea to employee as many people as possible no matter into which positions just to keep unemployment down?

Hi,

Hiring a lot of employees is something typical communistic. The communistic way of thinking, is that everybody needs a job. So when there are too less jobs, they will create jobs. You don't see it only in China. Also in Vietnam you see a lot of employees, waiting for a costumer so they have something to do. Mostly when you enter the shop, you will be helped by 3 to 4 girls. One is handling the register, one accept your money and gives it to the girl behind the register, a other one pack you stuff in a bag, and a other one open the door for you, when you leave the shop again. I also saw this kind of things in Thailand and Cambodia.

A second reason is that the employees are very cheap over here, and it is easy to get rid of them. In Europe you've got a lot of social rules, what makes this kind of employment impossible. In Europe you've got a minimum salary a employee has to earn, so an employee in Europe is already expensive, also with insurance and tax's and stuff. And when you have a employee, and the business is going a little bit bad, you can't just fire the employee, so you are stuck to it. That's why in Europe companies don't take an employee that fast, even when they need one. Especially the little companies (who exist mostly out one person) don't take a employee that fast, because they are afraid that they can't get rid of them when they need to. Maybe that is the problem of Europe, and has Europe to become a little bit less social. In those counties as China, it is easy to fire your employee, so when the business is getting better, they just hire a new employee. And the employee who is fired, can find easily a new job, because they hire people very easily.

Greetings,

Rutger.