Premier Li Keqiang recently said a 7.2% annual increase in China’s GDP creates 10 million new jobs a year. He therefore believes each percentage point of growth produces 1.4 million jobs. Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that last year China’s GDP jumped 7.7%. By his formula, the economy should have created 10.8 million new jobs in 2012. However, the number of available jobs or “demand for workforce” in the third quarter of this year fell by 2.5% from the third quarter of 2012. This year is observed as the toughest hiring season ever. College graduates were hired and fired in the same month as employers realized they did not need new hires.
