Xiagang is a Chinese term first utilized in 1995 by the Government of the People's Republic of China. It was introduced to describe the mass layoffs of state-owned enterprise (SOE) employees that occurred during the second half of the 1990s.
These layoffs took place as China underwent a drastic transition from a socialist command economy focused on egalitarianism and social welfare toward a socialist market economy characterized by competition and radical privatization. During this period, more than a quarter of the nation's SOE employees lost their positions within four years. By the end of 1999, over 24.4 million workers had been laid off and were forced to seek new livelihoods independently.
The impact of these layoffs was particularly significant in the industrial regions of Northeast and North China, which were once prosperous. The number of displaced workers continued to rise in the years following the initial transition period.