11.   State-run factories have been laying off millions of workers as they try to reorganize to cope with heavy debts and government-ordered reforms.

12.   State factories are laying off millions of workers to cope with free-market reforms.

13.   Worker protests have sprung up recently in many cities in China as unprofitable state-run factories have laid off workers or withheld wages.

14.   Many factories were laying off workers, and companies sought ever more ingenious ways to get their employees to work, and their products to market.