Beijing seeks ways to revive slowing economy & salvage property market

BEIJING, March 4, (AP): It’s clear that China’s efforts to build confidence in its slowing economy will top the agenda of its ceremonial national legislature, which convenes Tuesday in Beijing.

What remains unclear is how the ruling Communist Party can navigate toward stronger, sustained growth as China’s workforce is aging, relations with Washington are fraught, and housing construction - a main driver of the economy - is in crisis.

Hopes for a strong, consumer-led recovery after severe anti-virus controls ended in late 2022 have not been fulfilled. Local governments are mired in trillions of dollars of debt and direct investment by foreign companies in China fell by about 80% last year.

As more than 5,000 leaders from across China are gathered in Beijing for the year’s biggest political events, the mood on the streets and in financial markets remains glum.

That’s in contrast to official messaging as the country marks 75 years

Levi’s

Levi Strauss & Co. is slashing its global corporate workforce by 10% to 15% in the first half of the year - as part of a two-year restructuring plan that seeks to cut costs and simplify its operations, the denim giant said. The layoffs on the same day Levi’s unveiled a proposed 10-year extension to the naming rights for Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, in a $170 million deal.

Sony

Sony will cut about 900 jobs in its PlayStation division, or about 8% of its global workforce, citing changes in the industry as a reason for the restructuring. “The industry has changed immensely, and we need to future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead,” Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said in a blog post. The job cuts will occur in the Americas, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific region. In London, the PlayStation Studio will completely close.

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts is cutting about 5% of its workforce, or approximately 670 employees. The video game maker said in a regulatory filing that its board approved a restructuring plan that includes the layoffs, as well as closing some offices or facilities. The Redwood City, California, company had 13,400 workers globally as of March, 31, 2023, according to a filing. CEO Andrew Wilson said the layoffs would from the People’s Republic founding in 1949.

“We are confident of consolidating and enhancing the recovering and growing trend of the economy,” the party newspaper People’s Daily wrote in a commentary Saturday.

“We are fully capable of turning pressure into a driving force, accumulating and turning advantages into victorious trends and steering the advance of the great ship of the economy while braving wind and waves,” it added.

For videographer Wang Tao, the question is what the leadership will do about jobs. At 41, he’s struggling to find work in a labor market where companies tend not to hire anyone over 35.

“At first I thought it was difficult only for older people like me, but later I found out that many young people … are having a hard time finding work,” Wang said. “The general employment situation is grave.”

The congress endorses decisions already made by top leaders, providing

be largely completed by early next quarter.

Microsoft

Microsoft is laying off some 1,900 employees in its gaming division, according to an internal company memo. The job cuts - which represent about an 8% reduction of Microsoft’s 22,000-person gaming workforce - arrive just over three months since the tech giant completed its $69 billion purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard.

Riot Games

Video game developer Riot Games, which is behind the popular “League of Legends” multiplayer battle game, is trimming 11% of its staff. The company, which is owned by Chinese technology giant Tencent, said 530 jobs were being eliminated.

Twitch

Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, is cutting more than 500 jobs in a bid to save on costs. The video streaming platform’s CEO Dan Clancy said in an email to employees that even with cost cuts and growing efficiency, the platform “is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business.”

UPS

UPS will cut 12,000 jobs and hinted that its Coyote truck load brokerage business may be put up for sale. The Teamsters in September voted to approve a tentative contract agreement with UPS, including pay raises for a platform to publicize government plans and instruct officials on what they should do back home.

China’s most powerful leader in decades, Xi Jinping, will preside. He has installed loyalists in top posts to strengthen the party’s control over the economy and society. Xi, 70, is in his third five-year term as party general secretary and may hold that post for life.

Premier Li Qiang is expected to announce an official economic growth target when the National People’s Congress convenes Tuesday in Beijing’s ornate Great Hall of the People. State media suggest it will be about 5%, on par with last year’s 5.2% growth.

Many economists are forecasting much slower growth of 4% or less. In 2022, it dipped to 3%, the second-lowest level since at least the 1970s.

Li’s annual work report will include plans for “promoting high-quality development and advancing Chinese modernization,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

full- and part-time union workers and the creation of 7,500 full-time jobs. The job eliminations are anticipated to be among management roles and contractors, the company said.

Vice

Vice Media plans to lay off several hundred employees and no longer publish material on its Vice.com website, the company’s CEO said in a memo to staff. Vice filed for bankruptcy last year before being sold for $350 million to a consortium led by the Fortress Investment Group. Once a swashbuckling media company geared to a younger audience, New York-based Vice was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017.

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times said it was laying off at least 115 employees more than 20% of the newsroom - one of the largest staff cuts in the newspaper’s 143-year history. The announcement came after the LA Times Guild walked off the job to protest the imminent layoffs, the institution’s first ever newsroom union work stoppage.

Snap

The owner of Snapchat is cutting approximately 10% of its worldwide workforce, or about 530 employees, the latest tech company to announce layoffs. Snap Inc. said in a regulatory filing that it currently estimates $55 million to $75 million in charges, mostly for severance and related costs. It expects the majority of the costs to be incurred in the first quarter.