As China's Jobless Numbers Mount, Protests Grow Bolder

Technically speaking, Liu wasn't laid off but told by his employer, which provides sales help to companies during exhibitions, to take an unpaid "break" because there was no work. He has been sending out his résumé to company after company, but so far nothing. In previous years, Liu said, "I used to receive two or three interview invitation calls every day whenever I sent out my CV, but now there is really nobody who calls me." He is not hopeful about the government efforts: "I never want to depend on the government."

Liu is not the only one to discover the limits of China's deep pockets.

For all the help it is giving workers at factories in the export-heavy region of Guangdong province on the country's southern border, the government simply can't afford to pay every worker every yuan they are owed.

Now dealing with the third month of protests and sit-ins, the government has been gradually reducing its cash payouts to laid-off workers.

The workers at the Jianrong Suitcase Factory, who make an average of about $220 a month, finally accepted the government's money and went home after their bosses couldn't be located. But it was not without a fight that left workers with scrapes and bruises and, more important, resentment over their fate.

Still, the Jianrong workers are among the lucky ones. Tong Hengxin, a headhunter in Guangzhou, said some laid-off factory workers are getting back much less from the government, only a third of what they rightfully earned. With job prospects bleak, that money can't last long. As a result, Tong said, the mood is desperate: "Workers are always threatening to jump from the buildings and commit suicide."

Researchers Liu Liu, Liu Songjie, and Zhang Jie in Beijing contributed to this report.