Chinese Counties Strained by Rapid Growth in Underpaid Temporary Workers
• Local Chinese county has nearly twice as many temporary workers as full-time civil servants, putting strain on budgets
• Temporary workers paid much less than civil servants but recruitment lacks oversight, leading to overstaffing
• Declining land sales and tax revenue plus snowballing debt leaves counties reliant on central gov’t transfers
• Some counties hiding portion of temporary staff wages in department budgets to ease fiscal pressure
• County official calls for central gov’t to provide adequate functional funding to avoid grassroots budget crises