What Are the Most Common Jobs in China?
Although China is largely known for manufacturing, the service industry employs about the same number of people. Forty-five percent of China’s workers are employed in the services industry, and another 45 percent work in manufacturing. The remaining 10 percent are agricultural workers.
China has a labor force of 773 million people. The service sector of the economy has grown in China in recent years, corresponding with the nation’s increasing wealth. As workers earn more, they are able to spend more, creating jobs for others.
Service sector jobs are essentially all jobs that produce a nontangible product exchanged for money. Employment in this sector includes jobs in restaurants, retail businesses, housekeeping, logistics, healthcare, engineering, consulting, advertising, information technology, hospitality and administrative services. One example of a Chinese service-sector company is the e-commerce firm Alibaba, which employs around 20,000 workers.
Roughly the same number of people in China are employed in manufacturing jobs. Chinese manufacturing dominates the global marketplace largely due to low labor costs. Although average wages for a Chinese factory worker have risen in the last decade, the hourly salary was recently estimated at around $1.36. The average workday in a typical Chinese manufacturing facility is 12 hours long.
