China is witnessing worst economic shrinkage in decades due to sluggish domestic consumption and low export demand amid the pandemic. One of the fall-outs of the slow economy is the loss of jobs.
Unemployment is exploding in the country - an estimated 70 to 80 million Chinese people lost their jobs or were unable to work by the end of March, several weeks after the lockdown was lifted.
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Officially, the urban unemployment rate stood at 6 per cent in April, compared to 5.2 per cent last December - a loss of some 4 million jobs. But this figure represents only a small part of the reality.
"The official survey does not take into account migrant workers, nor the situation in small and medium-sized enterprises and among the self-employed," says Hu Xingdou, an independent economist in Beijing.
Another grim scenario is coming from China's export-related sectors that could shed up to 10 million jobs in the coming months, due to the global recession and renewed trade tensions with the United States and other countries.
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Although China's urban unemployment rate slipped to 5.7 per cent in June, 19.3 per cent of new graduates remained jobless, according to a report, and the labour market continues to face challenges.
Retail shops, wholesalers, restaurants, hotels - all sectors that are intensive in low-skilled labour - have closed down almost permanently or laid off their staff. At the end of April, a study by Zhongtai Securities, a brokerage firm based in Shandong province, estimated the real unemployment rate in China to be 20.5 per cent, with 70 million unemployed.
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Around 300 million migrants who have left the countryside to seek work in cities are now the most vulnerable segment of the population in a developing and unprecedented economic and social crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic.