China's job market said 'severe', finding work difficult - survey
Mainland residents surveyed by central bank lack confidence in employment prospects
Many mainland residents may not be as confident as Premier Li Keqiang in the prospects of the job market, a survey conducted by the People's Bank of China indicated.
In the third-quarter survey carried out by the central bank with urban depositors, 42.8 per cent of residents believe the job market faces "a severe situation" while finding jobs is difficult, with some feeling the prospects are "uncertain".
Only 12.9 per cent of residents feel the employment situation is good and finding a job is easy, while 44.3 per cent think it is just "so, so".
Despite this, general employment perception managed to climb a bit, rising to 39.2 per cent from 38.6 per cent in the previous quarter, according to a statement posted on the central bank's website. Job expectations also rose to 48.2 per cent from 47.8 per cent over the period.
Li has claimed that the job situation's importance exceeds the rate of economic growth.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum last week, Li said the stable survey-based jobless rate around 5 per cent in the first eight months and nearly 10 million urban new jobs created so far this year offered comfort for the government to tolerate slower growth than the annual target of about 7.5 per cent.
However, economists raised concern about the health of the job market as industrial output expanded at its slowest pace in six years while local governments were pushed to reduce polluting or redundant capacities at many plants.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Lu Ting said "the employment statistics in China is of low quality".
The official urban registered jobless rate has been blamed by researchers as failing to reflect overall labour flows as it excludes data about migrant workers.
The authorities have not begun disclosing the survey-based jobless rate regularly, which is believed to be a more accurate gauge than registered numbers.
The MNI China Business Report released by Deutsche Boerse showed reduced optimism among companies about the labour market in September, with the employment indicator falling to 52.3 from 54.5 in August, as the situation in the manufacturing sector weakened. The expectations indicator for jobs fell to the lowest for over a year, it said.
As the property market cools, the PBOC survey found that 59.5 per cent of residents thought home prices were too high, compared with 63 per cent in the second quarter.
In the PBOC survey, the entrepreneurs' confidence index fell to 63.6 per cent this quarter from 64.9 per cent previously.
Among all entrepreneurs, 37.4 per cent believed the economy was "a bit too cool", while 1.8 per cent thought it was a bit hot.
