China employment pressure ‘worsening’ this year in absence of solutions to shore up jobs
- Average monthly salaries in 38 major Chinese cities dropped by 1.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023 – the biggest quarterly drop since 2016 – according to a major job-recruitment platform
- Analysts continue to call for more aggressive stimulus measures, especially for China’s hard-hit private sector
Pay cuts and lay-offs come as little surprise nowadays for workers in China amid shrinking opportunities and growing uncertainties underpinning a gloomy job market, and insiders warn that jobseekers might need to brace themselves for an even more dismal year.
Feng Peixin, a Beijing-based headhunter specialising in private banking and pharmaceuticals, touched on how China’s employment market remains shrouded in pessimism this year.
“In the past, the salary increase for a job switch would be at least 20 to 30 per cent for senior-level management,” Feng said. But now, “an unchanged salary, or even a pay cut,” has become the norm.
And Feng said that is due, in part, to concerns that workers have about losing jobs, making them more likely to jump ship for a mediocre salary rather than hold out for higher-paying work.
Meanwhile, instability in international relations has also led to slashed revenues and subsequent job cuts.
“Selling to the US and European markets has become a real challenge … so now companies are left with markets in Southeast Asia and other belt and road countries, but they have limited buying capabilities,” Feng added, referring to economies that have been linked into China’s decade-old trade network, the Belt and Road Initiative.
