The economic paralysis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in China led to low job advertisements for most of the 2020. However, hiring activity crossed pre-COVID-19 levels in the last quarter of 2020 and continues to grow with active jobs open for recruitment in April 2021 reaching all-time high, finds GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Ajay Thalluri, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData says: “The COVID-19 pandemic impacted hiring activity in China with active jobs seeing a decline in 2020. However, the Asia’s largest economy was successful in controlling the pandemic with wide-scale vaccination. Subsequently, China was first to lift lockdowns and open the market that eventually led to the increase in hires, surpassing pre-COVID-19 levels in late 2020.”

China’s job market swelled in volume in 2021 with active jobs in every month of Q1 2021 showing considerable increase. The key growth drivers have always been industrial and manufacturing sectors that see large-scale employment generation. However, the importance of healthcare in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the sector contribute a significant number of job postings.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Job Analytics Database reveals that jobs in the consumer sector, alongside the construction and technology sectors are also high.. Companies such as China Merchants Property Operation & Service Co Ltd, Marriott International Inc, JD.com, Alibaba Pictures Group, and China Vanke Co Ltd dominated the hiring landscape with high job adverts.

With the pandemic raging even in 2021, companies continue to give precedence to themes such as sustainability, health and safety, and workplace safety. Jobs such as hygiene manager, chief of steward and hygiene, and hygienist were more pronounced in the tourism sector.

Mr Thalluri concludes: “China’s increase in economic activity as seen with its remarkable Q1 GDP growth was possible with more companies hiring and returning to normalcy in business operations. The country is set to increase employment opportunities and enable more hiring activity in the coming quarters.”