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MARCO WERMAN: I'm Marco Werman, and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. The global economic downturn is hitting home in China. A labor official announced today that 20 million migrant workers have lost their jobs and returned to their homes. That's nearly double the number of unemployed Americans – and more than double earlier Chinese government estimates. From Beijing, The World's Mary Kay Magistad reports that the new numbers add to fears in the ruling Communist Party about public dissent.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: The Chinese government has been saying for weeks that it fears the social unrest that could come as the country's galloping economic growth skids to a halt. Today, a top rural affairs official, Chen Xiwen, said it again.

CHEN XIWEN: The government places a lot of importance on rural stability. The key is to solve the following issues: land ownership, the environment, and resources, the relocation of farmers and the distribution of collectively owned assets. We need to deal with these issues according to the law in order to avoid conflicts.

MAGISTAD: There have been conflicts outside of shuttered factories in Guangdong province, as laid-off workers have demanded to be paid what was owed them. Farther inland, Sichuan province is the home of tens of millions of migrant workers. Still, many people seem either oblivious to how bad the economy's doing, or willing to be patient. One of the patient ones is migrant worker Wei Xi Dong, a medical machinery technician. He thinks the government has plenty of ideas to solve the economic crisis.

WEI XI DONG: I don't worry about it, because our country has many ideas to solve this problem in a short time, I think. In two years. It's normal in two years.

MAGISTAD: It's normal in two years. So during these two years, you think it will be a bit more difficult to find work?

DONG: It's not more difficult for us, because there are many works here.

MAGISTAD: Wei is college educated. He graduated a year and a half ago. Some seven million new college graduates will be looking for work this spring, and the government is particularly worried about the social unrest that could come from these millions of tech-savvy, college-educated only-children. They've been brought up with high expectations and they may feel the need to vent if they're frustrated in the job market. On the other hand, rural unrest is nothing new in China. There are tens of thousands of demonstrations each year in the countryside. The authorities' approach is usually to mollify the crowd, get it to disperse, and then arrest and punish the ringleaders. That's usually where it stops, because villagers don't tend to have the sophistication to organize beyond their local areas. But young Chinese college graduates do, especially if they remain unemployed with time on their hands. No wonder Premier Wen Jiabao this week called for forceful and extraordinary measures to breathe life back into China's beleaguered economy. For The World, I'm Mary Kay Magistad, in Beijing.

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