China: number of employed people 2023

The graph shows the number of employed people in China from 2013 to 2023. In 2023, the workforce in China amounted to around 740.4 million people. This marked an annual increase of 7 million, indicating a strong rebound from 2022, a year strongly influenced by the coronavirus pandemic.

Workforce in China

China’s total population has been declining since 2022 and dropped by 2.08 million to around 1.4097 billion as of the end of the 2023. This development is also reflected in the number of people in working age which has been shrinking since 2014. The labor force of China, which refers to the population aged 16 and over and capable of working, has been declining since 2016 and ranged at around 768.6 million in 2022. Out of the total number of employed people in 2023, about 470.3 million people were employed in urban areas, while 270.1 million people were working in rural areas.

Distribution of the workforce

Between 2011 and 2021, the share of the workforce employed in the primary sector declined significantly from 34.7 percent in 2011 to 22.9 percent in 2021. This trend was only interrupted in 2022 due to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the percentage of people employed in the primary sector decreased, the tertiary sector gained importance. As of 2022, about 28.8 percent of Chinese workers were employed in secondary and 47.1 percent in tertiary industries. The share of the workforce employed in the secondary sector increased until 2012 but decreased thereafter due to China's shift towards a service driven economy.