Coronavirus: China job listings tumble by 27 per cent in first quarter as economic toll of pandemic mounts

The coronavirus outbreak has led to a steep decline in demand in China’s job market, with employment ads tumbling by 27 per cent in the first quarter

New study shows that export-oriented firms and companies with foreign investment particularly aggressive in cutting new hires

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China’s job market has been dented by the coronavirus pandemic in the first quarter of 2020. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:18pm, 16 Apr 2020Updated: 11:32pm, 16 Apr 2020

The coronavirus outbreak is severely weakening China’s job market, with the number of new positions on offer shrinking by 27 per cent in the first quarter of the year, led by recruitment cuts among exporters and foreign enterprises, a study from China’s Peking University shows.

The study, which tracked 23 million new job posts on Chinese recruitment site Zhaopin.com, is a fresh warning about China’s economic future, including its role in the global economy and prospects for young jobseekers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

New jobs are vital for China’s prosperity and stability, and a key reason that Beijing sets an annual gross domestic product growth target is to ensure the economy produces enough new jobs to prevent social unrest.

China’s economy grew by 6.1 per cent last year, creating some 13.52 million new jobs.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, analysts had predicted the central government would set a 6 per cent growth target for 2020, leading to about 11 million jobs.

But as the global economy hurtles towards its steepest downturn in nearly 100 years, both those goals are likely to be downscaled or dropped entirely.

The Peking University study, which was released this week, showed that recruitment ads in China’s entertainment and services sector fell by more than 40 per cent from a year earlier, followed by smaller declines in education, sports, information technology and finance.