China Loses Workforce Almost Size of Germany’s in Three Years
- Number of working people declined by more than 41 million
- Data may pressure Beijing to raise official retirement ages
This article is for subscribers only.
China’s number of working people has fallen by more than 41 million in the past three years, reflecting both the coronavirus pandemic’s toll on the economy and a decline in the working age population.
Some 733.5 million Chinese people were employed in 2022, according to the country’s statistics bureau. That’s down from 774.7 million in 2019. The decline in employment over that period is almost equal to Germany’s entire workforce, which was about 44 million in 2021, according to the World Bank.