Analysis on the Employment of Landless Farmers during the Reconstruction of Urban Village：A Case Study of S Village in Shaanxi Province

Hua WANG，Yanjie XIE

College of Humanities and Social Development，Northwest A＆F University，Yangling 712100，China

1 Introduction

With the rapid development of China's urbanization，sluggish development of urban village has become a serious problem to be solved by government at all levels.In the reconstruction of urban village，the landless farmers leave the land that they are closely related to，but they lack the knowledge and skills to adapt to urban society.If their livelihood is not resolved，they'll become the city's＂new poor＂，and paying attention to the living and employment of these people isa good way to solve this problem.The survey chooses SVillage in ShaanxiProvince，and this villagewas included in the listof urban village to be reconstructed in Shaanxi in 2009.It is surrounded by universities and enterprises，and has convenient transportation.Now there is no arable land in S Village，and the village hasmore than 800 households andmore than 4000 farmers.Most of rural households have a dozen of houses for rent.The tenants in SVillage are farmore than farmers in SVillage.On the one hand，itbrings considerable economic benefits to farmers in S Village；on the other hand，it makes the villagers form psychological dependence on rental income，thus resulting in more social problems.The questionnaire is combined with interview in the survey，and the village farmers agedmore than 16 are chosen as the respondents.Themulti-stage sampling and random sampling are employed；a total of250 questionnaires are distributed，and 235 valid questionnaires are called back，with validity rate of 94%.

2 Current employment of landless farmers in S Village

2.1 Low re-emp loyment rate and quality of landless farmers in S VillageAfter the natural arable land is expropriated，with rapid urban construction，S village is developed rapidly by geographical advantages.Serried illegal buildings are erected in the village，and rental housing has become themain source of income of farmers，accounting formore than 50%of the average annual income of farmers.In the survey，the age of 16-59 years is regarded as the standard of labor of the right age.The vastmajority of landless farmers in S Village stay at home，and the labor of the right agewithout being employed accounts for 82.1%of the persons surveyed.There are very few farmers seeking jobs in the places near the village，a total of 18 people，accounting for only 7.7%of the persons surveyed.They are basically engaged in the construction， transportation， logistics， property management，cleaning and environmental protection，which are the strenuous jobs that urban people are reluctant to engage in，with low quality of employment.

2.2 Lack of employment competitiveness for the landless farmers in SVillageWith the deepening of China's economic reform，it has made tremendous demands on job seekers'age，knowledge，technique and awareness of market competition［1］.During the survey，it is found that landless farmers are generally older，and 40－59 years old landless farmersaccount for58.3%.In terms of education level，the landless farmers in SVillage receive little education（junior high school and below，83%；senior high school，only 9%；junior college and above，8%）.The low education level has affected farmers'non-farm employment opportunity.In landless farmers surveyed，most of them lack non-agricultural production skills，only 5.21%of landless farmers once received non-agricultural vocational training and only 15.1%of landless farmers once worked in non-agricultural industries.More than 50%of landless farmers of all ages in SVillage have not yet been engaged in non-agricultural industries.93.5%of farmers aged 50－59 are never engaged in non-agricultural industries（Table 1）.Therefore，older age，low education leveland lack ofnonfarm employment skills have severely restricted the farmers'competitiveness in the city's job market.

Table 1 Basic information about landless farmers in S Village Unit：%

2.3 Weak employment will of landless farmers in S Village

The main income of landless farmers in S village comes from house rent，and the difficulties in finding employment opportunitiesmake them hold negative attitude toward the employment problem.They pay no attention to the free employment training provided by the government，and most of them do not care about the willingness to be trained.Through in-depth interviews，it is found that they do not have a positive attitude towards employment.Their employmentwill is affected by age，knowledge，skills，current living conditions and other objective and subjective factors.For the 18 people achieving temporary employment，they are young and have received high school education ormore.The older farmers have weaker employmentwill and the farmerswith education level below primary school do notwant to talk about jobs.

3 The main factors influencing the employment of landless farmers during the reconstruction of SVillage

3.1 Local government lacks the overall design on the em-ployment of land less farmersDuring the expropriation of farmland in S village，the local government takes the problem of landless farmers as a simple economic compensation problem and does not take appropriate policies to improve employment security.Although the government has launched the employment training for landless farmers，the superior geographical location of S Village and farmers'long-term reliance on rental incomemake them difficult to have long-term employment outlook，and the local government lacks a positive response.Thus，due to the lack of a systematicmanagementapproach，the employment training carried out in SVillage is a mere formality.Presently，the tracking and feedback of implementation results is almosta blind spot，and the relevant departments do notmake appropriate adjustments on policy for SVillage，leading to a seriouswaste of resources，and reducing people's trust in government.

3.2 Landless farmers lack positive employment outlookThe landless farmers in SVillage currently take rentand collective dividends as themain income，and rental incomewill be themain source of income for farmers over a period of time.Due to weak employment awareness and conservative vision，they only seek short-term economic interests，but ignore the importance of longterm employment，so that young people are easy to form unhealthy values，doing nothing all day.In the long run，this is not conducive tomaintaining a stable life and further improving the quality of life for landless farmers.

3.3 The emp loyment environment is not conducive to the employment of landless farmers

3.3.1Unsound job market.Due to employment information asymmetry，landless farmers do not know how to find the right job.Shaanxi Province has introduced a number of policymeasures to support the employmentof landless farmers in the urban village，and publicize the policies through e-government platform，online newspapers and othermedia channels.However，due to the age and education level of landless farmers and the environment，they have little access to the Internet and newspapers，making some landless farmerswant to startup their own undertaking，butno one well knows the entrepreneurship policy in the region.In addition，the developmentof tertiary industry in SVillage is slow，and rural enterprise development is notmature enough，so there isa limited amount of labor that can be absorbed.

3.3.2Unstable financial support for employment and entrepreneurship.In the survey，it is found that some young landless farmers in SVillage have a very strong desire to start their own businesses，but they do not have a lot ofmoney and do not know how to obtain venture capital.At the same time，there are some idle funds thathave notbeen put to good use in a number of small local banks.

3.3.3Competition between a lot of youngmigrants.The transportation is convenient around SVillage，and there is an influx of young migrant workers from elsewhere.Most of these migrant workers are influenced by urban civilization，and they have advantages in age，educational level and working experience as well as active employmentandmarketawareness，compared with the landless farmers in SVillage.In addition to social demand for skilled personnel，the landless farmers have not a very good competitive advantage in employment.

3.4 It lacks rural vocational educationThe survey of vocational training in SVillage shows that it lacks vocational training for landless farmers.First，SVillage hasno special training institution of rural vocationaleducation.Second，there isa shortage of training programs for those older landless farmerswith poor knowledge and skills.Third，there are no mandatory requirements on the training for landless farmers，and the training elasticity of landless farmers is large，resulting in low training rate.

4 Conclusions and recommendations

4.1 ConclusionsThis paper analyzes themain factors influencing the employment of landless farmers in SVillage as an urban village in Shaanxi Province，such as local government's lack of overall design on the employment of landless farmers，landless farmers'lack of long-term employment concept，poor employment conditions，and lack of vocational education in rural areas.Finally the following recommendationsare set forth to enhance the employment of landless farmers in SVillage.

4.2 Recommendations

4.2.1Strengthening the institutional support for the employment of landless farmers.（i）The local governmenthas the responsibility to offer preferential policies to help landless farmers to be employed.The local government should give play to the fiscal transfer payment function，create employment security fund for landless farmers to subsidize the costvocationaland technical training，and support the landless farmers to run collective enterprises or individual enterprises.（ii）It is necessary to improve the employment service system，establish employment information service platform for landless farmers，and include landless farmers into this platform to provide them with timely and valuable employment information.The relevant government departments should strengthen tieswith various vocational intermediary organizations and set up special hotline telephone to providemore useful services to landless farmers.（iii）In accordancewith the principles of urban and rural coordination，it is necessary to establish the unemployment compensation mechanism for landless farmers in S Village.The compensation content should include hard compensation such as money and soft compensation such as vocational training，and there is a need to implement differentiated compensation before compensation.

4.2.2Perfecting the fund guarantee for the employmentof landless farmers.（i）It is necessary to solve the funding problem.At early stage，the special employment funds are raised from local government and civil society；in the later period，it mainly depends on Svillage's collective circulating funds.（ii）It is necessary to establish corresponding funds.Local governments should establish special funds for job training，expand training service channels to fund the employment-oriented vocational skill training，and establish the unemployment funds for landless farmers so as to provide a solid foundation for landless farmers to integrate into a new life［2］.（iii）It is necessary to offer preferential economic incentives to entrepreneursamong the landless farmers in SVillage，for example，the financial institutions can give preferential loans，and government can consult with relevant legal person to reduce the rent.

4.2.3Actively expanding the employment channels.（i）It is necessary to establish the business center and encourage farmers to start their own businesses.The business center can form a linkage mechanism with businessmanagement and consultancy agencies，training institutions and other relevant agencies to help entrepreneurs in SVillage to choose business programs.（ii）It is necessary to vigorously develop community jobs.We can combine the greening，environmental protection，health，transportation and other services in SVillage，to provide a certain amountof jobs for landless farmers，so that landless farmers can realize employment locally.（iii）It is necessary to introducemarketmechanism，develop the village and town enterprises，implement market-based reform on organization system and operational mechanism of the village collective economy，and create a lot of jobs.

4.2.4Enhancing the employability of landless farmers.（i）It is necessary to change the employmentoutlook.Improving the employability is a fundamental way for landless farmers to achieve sustainable employment［3］. Government should actively guide landless farmers in SVillage to accept the new identity，and regularly set up some courses online to change the concept of farmers'employment and popularize knowledge of the relevant laws.（ii）It is necessary to carry out employment training.The employment training can be led by the relevantgovernment departments，combined with some universities，vocational training institutions and enterprises［4］，to improve the professionalism of landless farmers.（iii）It is necessary to strengthen the neighborhood.The local government should organizemore related activities，and strengthen links between the landless farmers in S Village，to enhance the collective sense of honor and promote joint entrepreneurship and employment.

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