Xinlu Liang’s Post

It is a pleasure to join Yvonne Man, David Ingles and Minmin Low on the Bloomberg China Show for a deep dive on China’s labor market and youth employment. Headline youth unemployment rate doesn’t give us a full picture when labor force participation is declining in this group due to weak confidence. The high youth unemployment is both cyclical and structual in nature, i.e. a mismatch in labor supply and demand. Although aggregate unemployment rate in China stays largely stable, the job and wage growth is tilting towards lower end segament of the labor market while employees in middle to high end professional service industries remain concerned about job security and pay cut. This could lead to a lackluster recovery in household consumption featured by “consumption downgrade”. Ultimately, the government needs to be more aggressive in bringing back the private sector’s animal spirit for sustained job and economic growth.

Why is labor cheap in China? Living the way of cellular humans In response to this question, most people mention China's large population. But the real reason lies in the lifestyle of Chinese workers. Their lifestyle is similar to that of cellular humans. Because of this, their living expenses are very low and they can work with low wages and manage their lives. Cellular humans live in a way where they work, live, and everything else in one place. They live with minimal expenses. They don't pay rent for houses because they sleep in factories. They do not pay electricity, water and gas bills, because they live in the factory. They will not have marriage problems, because they will all be sterile in the future. They will completely transform into cellular humans. Eat, work, sleep, eat, work, sleep and repeat this every day, without interruption.

Why is labor cheap in China? Living the way of cellular humans In response to this question, most people mention China's large population. But the real reason lies in the lifestyle of Chinese workers. Their lifestyle is similar to that of cellular humans. Because of this, their living expenses are very low and they can work with low wages and manage their lives. Cellular humans live in a way where they work, live, and everything else in one place. They live with minimal expenses. They don't pay rent for houses because they sleep in factories. They do not pay electricity, water and gas bills, because they live in the factory. They will not have marriage problems, because they will all be sterile in the future. They will completely transform into cellular humans. Eat, work, sleep, eat, work, sleep and repeat this every day, without interruption. https://lnkd.in/dQE_-Wa4

After three decades selling homemade buns on the streets of the Chinese city of Xian, 67-year-old Hu Dexi would have liked to slow down. Instead, Hu and his older wife have moved to the edge of Beijing, where they wake at 4 a.m. every day to cook their packed lunch, then commute for more than an hour to a downtown shopping mall, where they each earn 4,000 yuan ($552) monthly, working 13-hour shifts as cleaners. The alternative for them and many of the 100 million rural migrants reaching retirement age in China over the next 10 years is to return to their village and live off a small farm and monthly pensions of 123 yuan ($17). "No one can look after us," said Hu, still mopping the floor. "I don't want to be a burden on my two children and our country isn't giving us a penny." The generation that flocked to China's cities at the end of last century, building the infrastructure and manning the factories that made the country the world's biggest exporter, now risks a sharp late-life drop in living standards. Reuters interviewed more than a dozen people, including rural migrant workers, demographers, economists and a government adviser, who described a social security system unfit for a worsening demographic crisis, which Beijing is patching rather than overhauling as it pursues growth through industrial modernisation. At the same time, demand for social services is growing rapidly as the population ages. "The elderly in China will live a long and miserable life," said Fuxian Yi, a demographer who is also a senior scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison. "More and more migrant workers are returning to the countryside, and some are taking low-paid jobs, which is a desperate way for them to save themselves." @reuters #reuters #china #aging #demography #population #society #people #economy #elderly #aging #demographics #government #security #jobs #employment #pension

A fraying, uneven social safety net exists today in #China . Earlier this year saw protests in Chinese cities by China's elderly against a 70% cut in #healthcare benefits. While beneficiaries of China's safety net receive direct payments and housing subsidies being offered by local governments' campaigns for young people to marry and to have more children. One sector, the "floating population" 流動人口 further strain social services as these rural workers have lost employment in the cities they helped to build and now face diminished live chances as described in this recent news article. Compounding this dilemma, the floating population is made up of working age-parents whose children were "left-behind" to be cared for by grandparents living in their villages. Social scientists use the Gini coefficient as a measure of unequal income distribution and China's is higher at .47 than that of the U.S. at .39, measuring China's income distribution to be greater than that of the U.S. Other Western democracies have less income inequality than both China and the U.S. Will Chinese leader #XiJinping's "common prosperity" campaign, developed to move private company wealth towards the "low end population", be able to reduce income #inequality and continue the country’s economic growth? Will China develop another path reducing spending on #socialservices and addressing income inequality or devoting more resources to other areas such as the #military , #corporate R&D, infrastructure or its Belt and Road initiative? This is a huge question for China watchers. Please share your thoughts on the gaps that already strain today's China and their path towards future development?

China’s employment sector has shown resilience in the face of global economic challenges. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has recently reported stable figures in the first quarter of 2024. In Q1 of 2024, China saw 3.03 million new urban employment opportunities. This figure marks a notable increase of 60,000 compared to the same period last year. Therefore, it demonstrates China’s ongoing efforts to stimulate economic growth and create employment avenues for the urban workforce. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dJp7YKdP #China #Employee #Employment #Job #jobopportunity

Happy Labor Day! Did you know these 2 facts? 1️⃣ The US, Canada, and the UK are some countries that don't celebrate Labor Day today. Yay, the US stock market is open tonight! 2️⃣ Though it's a PH in China, many workers need to return this holiday by going to work this weekend or next? I learnt about this while holidaying in various parts of China on the weekend after Qing Ming. It was a Sun morning and I saw streams of office workers walking past the hotel I was in. According to those I asked, this policy was put in place to increase productivity and to be more competitive in this increasingly competitive world. As an entrepreneur, I love PH and weekends. I look forward to them because I get to work more, hone my skills, and chill a little. Maybe entrepreneurs are a different breed of people. Do you feel the same way about PH and weekends? #laborday #mayday #china #personaldevelopment #personalgrowth #hustle #entrepreneurship

*** 🆓📰 2024.01.18. ⏱️🇨🇳⌚... 🌐... & broken "Chinese dream" of the youngest... Again... Extract : "[...] More than one in four of the roughly 100 million Chinese aged 16-24 were unemployed in June, the last data point before officials suspended the series. China resumed publication of the data on Wednesday, excluding college students from it, to put youth unemployment at 14.9% in December.China's Generation Z is the most pessimistic of all age groups, surveys show. Those who find jobs earn less than they expect as businesses cut costs in response to poor domestic demand. Recruiter Zhaopin found the average salary employers offered in China's 38 biggest cities fell by 1.3% year-on-year in the fourth quarter. [...]" 🆓🀄. 🔜 2027 🔀 2049... ⏳... ***

“When China launched its one-child policy more than four decades ago, it sped up an evolution toward smaller family sizes that would have happened more gradually. The policy supercharged the country’s workforce: By caring for fewer children, young people could be more productive and put aside more money. For years, just as China was opening its economy, the share of working-age Chinese grew faster than the parts of the population that didn’t work. That was a big factor in China’s economic miracle. There was a price and China is now paying it. Limiting births then means fewer workers now, and fewer women to give birth. A United Nations forecast published Thursday shows how quickly China is aging, a demographic crunch that the U.N. predicts will cut China’s population by more than half by the end of the century.”

By 2040, an estimated 28% of China's population will be over 60 years old. Because of its low birth rate, it is becoming one of the world’s fastest ageing populations. Michael Lam, Managing Director of APAC, BSI, believes that by acting right now, China will have the opportunity to maintain its competitiveness in the future age-diverse workforce by focusing on: ⚫ Skill upkeep and training ⚫ Lifetime learning ⚫ Improving health and well-being People will be working for longer and multiple age groups will be working together. There is a growing awareness of the benefits that can come from cultivating a more balanced, welcoming and supportive workplace for all, irrespective of age. Our new report explores the future of work: https://gag.gl/dCZwQu #AgeDiverseWorkforce #WorkplaceWellBeing #BSI