China has been a focal point of investors, economists and others during the initial weeks of twenty sixteen. Much of the attention has been given to plunging share values on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges as well upon the missteps of policymakers in managing the currency. Less attention has been given to China’s increasingly fragile labor market.
This relative dearth of attention is partially attributable to official Chinese government data, which suggests that the unemployment rate for urban workers remains roughly unchanged at about four percent. But most outside observers estimate the real figure may be a couple of percentage points higher than that.
For instance, the Conference Board’s China Center for Economics and Business estimates the Chinese urban unemployment rate at about six percent. As reported by Bloomberg, cash strapped companies in construction, manufacturing, mining and services are now delaying paying their workers, which has helped to foment growing labor unrest.
Worker protests and demonstrations doubled last year to nearly twenty eight hundred, with December’s total of more than four hundred such incidents establishing a new monthly record.
