Agencies
Beijing
Households in China are still grappling with a weak job market, with consumption spending relatively low as they lean more towards savings, the latest central bank quarterly survey has shown.
The findings of the People’s Bank of China published last week indicate continued challenges for policymakers, who have been counting on domestic consumption to propel the post-Covid economy towards this year’s growth target of around 5 percent. Among 20,000 residents across 50 cities interviewed for the survey, 46.5 per cent described the job situation in January to March as “precarious” and “uncertain”, saying they found it “hard to be employed”.
Only 10.5 percent of respondents said it was “easy to find a job” in the three-month period or that the employment situation was “becoming better”. A separate PBOC survey of entrepreneurs, also released last Tuesday, showed nearly 42 percent felt macroeconomic fundamentals such as jobs, and supply and demand were beginning to cool.
