一九九八國務院機構改革的目標是國務院機關幹部編制總數減少一半，在一九九八年底以前完成國務院機構減編定員的工作，用三年時間做好人員分流工作。一九九八國務院機構改革大致可為二個階段，首先是各部門制定

「三定」(定職能、定機構、定編制)方案，經總理辦公會議討論批准定案;其次由各部門嚴格按照「三定」規定執行，進行人員的定崗和分流工作;國務院制定「中央國家機關人員定編定崗實施辦法」、「中央國家機關人員分流安排實施辦法」各部門人員定崗工作在一九九八年底前完成，分流到位三年完成。一九九八年七月國務院提出「關於國務院各部門分流人員學習和培訓實施方案」它是處理國務院機構改革中分流人員的主要辦法;在一萬六千個分流人員中統一規劃了一萬三千個分流人員進行學習和培訓。而其餘三千個分流人員則是離退休、調派至企業單位、事業單位、基層組織。然而大部分的分流人員選擇分流到企業單位、事業單位、基層組織，不願參加培訓，影響到進一步實行「國有企業改革」、「政企分開」、「省、縣級機構改革」的進程與深度，以及提高中共政權公務人員整體素質。而參加培訓的分流人員要二、三年後才能到位，國務院人員分流問題依然存在。

The goal of the 1998 State Council reform in mainland China is to cut the total number of the government functionaries by half. -The work of simplifying government agencies and fixing the number of government staffs was designed to be completed by the end of 1998， and three years were to be used to find work for those who have to leave their posts in the process. The State Council reform has been carried out in two stages: the formulation of the plan on the fixation of the functions， structure， and size of the departments under the State Council， and the implementation of the plan by each department. For this reform， the State Council formulated the “Regulationson Fixing the Structure and the Functions of Central-Level Government Organizations"

and the “Regulationson the Arrangement of Work for the Central-Level Government Staffs Who Have to Leave Their Posts." In July 1998， the State Council issued the “Planon the Study and Training for Personnel of Departments under the State Council Who Have to Leave Their Posts." Although most of these people (numbered at 16，000) are not interested in the study and training programs and prefer to be transferred to enterprising units， institutions， and grassroots-level organizations， a total of 13，000 of them must attend the study and training programs， with only remains 3，000 being able to transfer to the above-mentioned units or to retire. Such an attitude doubtlessly will have an adverse effect on the efforts to reform the state-owned enterprises， to separate functions between the government and the enterprises， to restructure the provincial- and county-level organizations， and to improve the quality of government staffs.