Economy

Guangdong export companies cut 820,000 jobs

By Qi Xiao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-02-26 16:27
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Guangdong's industrial export companies laid off more than 820,000 employees in 2009 due to the global financial crisis, according to data released by the province's statistics bureau cited by xinhuanet.com.

Latest figures show the total export of these companies stood at $214.89 billion in 2009, 10.3 percent lower year-on-year, while the total number of employees was 9.04 million, down by 8.3% and 822,400 fewer compared with last year.

The largest numbers of job cuts were from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign-funded industrial export companies with the former three down by 459,300 combined and the latter down by 325,600.

The job cuts were largely concentrated in the industries of electronics, electrical equipment and machinery manufacturing and leather products manufacturing, according to the report.

The cities of Dongguan, Shenzhen and Guangzhou witnessed the sharpest decrease of employees in 2009, down by 323,200, 267,200 and 87,300 respectively, the report added.