Liu Shunli, Yang Xiao and another store assistant poses with pastries at the bakery in Beijing. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Low rates

According to the Second National Census of the Disabled in 2006, the latest available statistics, the employment rate for intellectually disabled people was less than 10 percent, the lowest among all disabled groups. Experts estimate that the figure has not changed in the decade since.

Zhang Baolin, chairman of the China Association of Persons with Intellectual Disability and their Relatives, said more recent surveys conducted by NGOs also suggest that the rate is unchanged. "The figure is lower still if 'fake employment' is taken into consideration," he said, referring to the practice whereby intellectually disabled people receive a salary from employers but never leave their homes.

However, a survey conducted during the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) by Xu Jiacheng, former dean of the department of special education at Beijing Union University, showed that more than 80 percent of people ages 18 to 60 with intellectual disabilities were willing to work.

"In the end, most of them stay at home or go to welfare institutions when they graduate from special schools," Xu said.

The low employment rate is not unique to China. A report by the World Labor Organization said the circumstances of the intellectually disabled are "equally alarming" around the world, irrespective of culture or economic circumstances.

A 2006 survey by the Canadian Association for Community Living showed that 27 percent of people with intellectual disabilities were employed that year, lower than any other disabled group.

According to Zhang, the rate is low in a Chinese context. "Compared with Western countries, China's welfare system is not as mature, and a job means a lot to the intellectually disabled and their families," he said, adding that employment fulfills a psychological need for people in the group.

Zhang Zhenfei, head of the employment and poverty alleviation department of the China Disabled Person's Federation, said despite regulations to urge employers to take on more intellectually disabled people "the figure is much lower than for the physically disabled, which is around 40 percent".

In 2007, the State Council, China's Cabinet, passed the Regulation on the Employment of the Disabled which requires that businesses ensure that at least 1.5 percent of their employees are from disabled groups.

Employers who fail to meet the target must pay a variable sum to the Employment Security Fund for the Disabled. If a company has no disabled employees, the amount it pays is equal to the total salaries paid the previous year multiplied by the percentage of disabled employees stipulated by local governments.