14. Report on the Future Supply of the Working Age Population and Demand for Employable Skills in China

Abstract

An analysis of future labour supply trends in China makes clear that, in the process of reducing the labour supply, the country's one-child policy has lead to few children, allowing families greater ability to focus investment on their children's education. This, together with the expansion in enrolment of Chinese universities, while improving population quality, has also divided the labour supply channels, and accelerated the transfer of the labour force from the primary industry to both the secondary and tertiary industries, from state owned enterprises to non-state-owned enterprises, and from China's central and western areas to its eastern seaboard area. As part of this transfer process, the market requires a larger vocational-skills labour force, but there is insufficient structural demand for graduates from general colleges and universities. Keywords: China; future labour supply; graduates