China’s job market improves in second quarter despite record low growth rate

Ratio of available jobs to jobs seekers rose to 1.89 in the second quarter, up from five-year low of 1.68 in the first three months of 2019

Government has targeted creating 11 million new jobs this year despite the ongoing trade war with the United States, which saw China’s GDP drop to a record low

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NBS spokesman Mao Shengyong warned earlier this week that, while employment was stable, it will come under significant pressures from the record-high 8.3 million university graduates this year, many of whom will begin to look for jobs this summer. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:00pm, 17 Jul 2019Updated: 8:00pm, 17 Jul 2019

China’s job market improved slightly in the second quarter of 2019, with more posted vacancies than jobseekers, despite the country’s record-low growth rate.

After dropping to a five-year low of 1.68 in the first quarter, the number of jobs available for every applicant increased to 1.89 in the following three months due to faster growth of seasonal hiring.

But the ratio, provided by the China Institute for Employment Research (CIER) at Renmin University of China in Beijing which tracks data on recruitment website Zhaopin every quarter, showed little change from the same period last year.

The report is largely in line with the unemployment data reported by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) earlier this week, which showed that the monthly survey-based unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5 per cent in April and May before rising slightly to 5.1 per cent in June.

According to the China Institute for Employment Research index, the 10 sectors with the lowest ratio of vacancies to applicants are mostly in traditional industries, such as manufacturing, energy, mining, and printing, where there is low demand for new hires. Photo: AFP

The average unemployment rates in the 31 provincial level capitals remained at 5 per cent in the second quarter.

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