What does China’s ‘employment-first strategy’ mean for young jobseekers in an overcrowded labour pool?

They appear in record numbers every year – fresh college graduates – and it ‘certainly adds pressure to employment’, new Premier Li Qiang says

Some say Beijing’s bolder employment objective – adding 12 million new jobs in 2023 – contrasts with leadership’s moderate GDP growth target for China

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Beijing is touting a new strategy intended to create jobs for a labour pool that adds nearly 12 million graduates a year. Illustration: Brian Wang

Published: 6:00am, 14 Mar 2023

Against the backdrop of China’s race to repair its economy, new Premier Li Qiang kicked off his premiership by vowing “continue to pursue an employment-first strategy” this year as Beijing’s new leadership line-up gears up to clear labour-market obstacles and create jobs for yet another record number of university graduates.

During his first press conference on Monday following the closing ceremony of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Li said Beijing would take multiple steps to stabilise and expand employment and offer more government support in employment services and technical training, especially for young people.

“Employment is the cornerstone of people’s livelihood, but ultimately, the solution to job creation lies in economic growth,” Li said.

Beijing has set a relatively ambitious job-creation target for this year – around 12 million. If achieved, that many new jobs would strongly underpin leadership’s modest economic growth target “around 5 per cent”, as outlined in a government work report last week.

The bolder employment objective for 2023 – it had usually been set at 11 million over the past five years, excluding 2020 – contrasts with the safe gross domestic product (GDP) growth target, according to Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief economist at Natixis for the Asia-Pacific region.

“The lift of the employment target reflects the government’s concerns about the job market, especially for the young workers,” she said. “However, the ambitious employment target also implies that the current growth target is not ambitious enough, because higher employment creation usually relies on stronger economic growth.”