Previous studies based on number of workers statistics assume systematically a fixed
work week. By doing so, they ignore the regulations that reduced the work week in Chinese
industry for the “staff and workers” sub-category. In fact, in China, the work week was
shortened from a 48-hour-week to a 44-hour-week in March 1994 and to a 40-hour-week in
May 1995. In this study, we attempt to compute a consistent employment series by taking into
consideration the shortened work week. In this regard, starting from March 1994, we build the
48-hour-week equivalent series for the “staff and workers” sub-category by deducting the
effect of typical work week declines on annual employment figures