From Bloomberg, July 9:
China dropped a numerical target for urban job creation over the next five years for the first time in decades, in an apparent nod to rising uncertainty over employment as AI spreads through the economy.
The government will instead keep new urban jobs at a “considerable scale” in 2026-2030, according to a five-year plan released Thursday by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Annual targets will be set flexibly based on each year’s conditions, it said.
The move marks the first time since at least the 1990s that a headline number for new urban jobs has been left out of the country’s medium-term economic plan. The omission highlights China’s challenge in shielding its vast workforce from AI displacement while chasing technological supremacy against the US and other rivals.
The government will “comprehensively address the impact of changes in the external environment and the development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence on employment,” according to the plan. Industrial transformation and demographic shifts also pose “new challenges to economic development and social governance,” it said.
In its annual government work report in March, China targeted more than 12 million new urban jobs for the year alongside an economic growth goal of 4.5% to 5%, its most modest expansion target since 1991.
Read More: China Sets Lowest Growth Target Since 1991 as Old Model Falters
The official measure of new urban jobs doesn’t take into account those who become unemployed, and is therefore different from the net change in employment....
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