China county’s local debt snowballs after it hires army of civil servants, despite paltry yearly salaries of US$2,300
- Expansion of part-time workers has weighed heavily on the unnamed county’s already-strained fiscal budget at a time when local-level debt has become an outsized concern across China, says state media
- Temporary workers make merely a fraction of what full-time civil servants make in their ‘iron rice bowl’ positions
In a rare acknowledgement of the regional financial struggles facing one of China’s most destitute regions, state media has reported on the crushing fiscal pressure resulting from overstaffing.
The report was based on the magazine’s recent visit to an unidentified county in the mountainous Wumeng region, which covers more than two dozen poor counties in southwest China’s Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.
The disclosure came as Beijing has been scratching its head over how to deal with the level of snowballing debt owed by local authorities, which has forced many of them to cut construction budgets or downsize their general spending.
The recruitment process for most temporary personnel lacks central oversight
According to the report, the total wage budget for temporary workers is less than a fourth of what is paid to institutionalised civil servants, who have jobs that are considered to be as secure as an “iron rice bowl”.
