Job market remains stable amid nation’s economic recovery

China’s surveyed urban unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2024 came in at 5.2 percent, down 0.3 percentage points year-on-year, indicating an overall stable employment situation, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate also stood at 5.2 percent in March, a year-on-year decrease of 0.1 percentage point, per NBS data.

Experts said that China’s economic revival, rapid rise of new quality productive forces and non-stop policy support are the major advantages in stabilizing the labor market and will further boost employment.

Policies to stabilize employment have already shown an obvious effect, and the structural problem will turn out to be more serious without supported policies, Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the NBS, said on Tuesday, the paper.cn reported.

Sheng said that he remained optimistic about China’s job market. He noted that on the one hand, the continuously expanding economy will need labor, adding that more than 10 million jobs were created in 2023 amid a GDP increase of 6 trillion yuan ($828.86 billion). On the other hand, the rapidly developing services industry amid China’s industrial upgrading will absorb more workers, as the services sector accounts for 55 percent of China’s GDP and provides employment flexibility.

In addition to dedicated government support, the economic rebound drove up labor demand in the first quarter, while the development of new quality productive forces created a new growth point with more job opportunities, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

As to the recovery of the services sector, robust tourism has played a vital role in offering new jobs, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday.