Casual Workers in Hangzhou

Abstract

A sample survey is made of the overall state of existence of casual workers in Hangzhou municipality. Emphasis is placed on describing such aspects as the demographic characteristics, work circumstances, state of existence, labor and social guarantees, social relationships, plans for the future, inner feelings, and opinions and appeals of casual workers. Casual workers are a special product of the period of transformation of Chinese society—one that possesses fairly unique features and formational boundaries. The "casual worker" phenomenon should become a new focus of attention for the government and society. Attention should be paid to their social circumstances, their marginalization, their lack of social guarantees, and to solving their specific difficulties so as to lay a broad social foundation for realizing the objective of building a harmonious society.