Expediting the Transfer of Surplus Labor from Traditional Agricultural Sector under New Circumstances: Problems and Countermeasures

To solve the problem of rural surplus labor is the key to building a moderately prosperous society,narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas,and improving rural residents' income and living standards.The propelling force behind such transfer of surplus labor is two-fold,namely,the internal push such as the insufficiency in load bearing capacity of rural land resources and the exorbitantly low rate of return on agricultural investments,as well as the external pull such as the income disparity between rural and urban areas and the robust advancement of China's urbanization cause.However,a series of problems,covert or overt,have seriously hindered the process of transferring surplus labor from traditional agricultural sector,which include China's existing urban and rural household registration barriers,the retardation of China's urbanization process,the imperfect social security system,the low cultural quality on the part of rural laborers,etc.Faced with these problems,in order to ensure a smooth and free flow of rural surplus labor,efforts must be made to implement the reform of China's current household registration system,establish a sound social security system,vigorously develop the tertiary industry and other rural non-agricultural industries,and above all,comprehensively improve the overall quality of rural surplus labor force.