One aim was to shine a light on China s management problems in SOEs. Researchers studied 15 government corporations on management and personnel issues. The group reflects the problems in many industries including textiles, petrochemicals, electronics, consumer goods and industrial equipment. All 15 SOEs interviewed reported overstaffing. It would have been worse, the study adds, if overstaffing takes into consideration personnel who are underemployed.
Many economists believe SOEs have about a third more employees than necessary.
Which is why Beijing is looking to share the problems with foreign companies as the price of entry to the Chinese mega-market. But some problem SOEs won t attract interest from even the keenest multinationals. Han Xiulan, senior researcher for the Institute of Industrial Economics, says the state firm uses only 190,000 of its half-million employees. She says the staff should really be cut to 100,000. But, for China s leadership, such a reduction is unthinkable for its impact on social stability.