When the programmes were kicked off, migrant workers were not included in them. Since the global financial crisis, China has been implementing a more active labour market programme, with the migrant workers as the focal group. These post-crisis active labour market policies can be expected to help reduce income inequality, since they will promote employment and help labourers to find jobs. In 1996, Shanghai City began to require SOEs to establish re-employment service centres, and in 1998 the central government issued a regulation providing a basic living subsidy for laid-off workers, and promoting their re-employment.