Economics
Fewer Chinese Join the Job Market, But That May Be a Good Thing
- Declining rate adds to wage pressure as labor force shrinks
- Change may mark the arrival of a new labor market in China
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China’s labor force participation rate is falling, shrinking the nation’s pool of workers further, pressuring wages and dragging down growth. Some demographers say that’s a good thing.
The participation rate -- defined as people who can work, are looking for work or are in jobs, divided by the total working-age population aged 16 to 65 -- fell from just over 77 percent in 2010 to 72.4 percent in 2015, according to research by Jia Peng at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. The fall is exacerbating a tightening of the nation’s labor market, where the working age population began falling in 2012.