China comes out better with job creation despite slower economic growth
BEIJING: Despite external uncertainties and concerns of a softening economy, China has kept delivering impressive job gains with a resilient economy and nimble governance.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 11.93 million new urban jobs were created in the first 10 months this year, meeting the annual target of creating more than 11 million new jobs ahead of schedule.
Before 2019, China has created more than 13 million new urban jobs annually for six consecutive years even though its GDP growth slowed. The country’s economy expanded 6.2 per cent in the first three quarters, within the government’s annual target of 6 to 6.5 per cent. Every percentage point increase of the country’s GDP growth can be translated into around 2 million new jobs, said Liu Aihua, spokesperson of the NBS.
Buoyed by the steady economic growth, China’s job market is getting stronger support from the tertiary industry.
In recent years, China’s economic structure has shifted from an industry-led one to a serviceled one. The output of the tertiary industry in 2018 reached 46.96 trillion yuan ($6.66 trillion), up 7.6 per cent year by year, accounting for 52.2 per cent of the total GDP.
The tertiary industry’s contribution to job creation is about 20 percentage points higher on average than the second industry in 2018, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.