Women used to be the main labor force in the many silk-weaving plants and silk dying factories. However, the economic transition from light industry to the electronic industry led some factories to close down. Others reorganized their labor force and released excess workers. A large number of women workers have been made redundant as a result of this economic readjustment. Older women with insufficient education have a high unemployment ratio and the number of registered unemployed women is among the highest in the province.
To tackle the problems, a number of projects, such as Guiding Center for Reemployment of Women, Reemployment Training Center and Employment Consultation Service have been launched by the municipal women's federation to create better conditions for women to find jobs.
Based on statistics from the Department of Women's Development of the Suzhou Women's Federation, there are 1,807 consultation stations and nine organizations providing re-employment services and the re-employment rate of those who have received training courses has reached 65 percent.
