Economic slowdown cools labor market

China's economic slowdown is starting to have an impact on the labor market, a human resources official said on Monday.

In early August, a survey of companies' employment levels and of migrant workers' returning home was done in 20 provinces, mainly large labor-exporting or labor-receiving provinces. More than 680 companies and migrant workers from 464 villages participated in the sur-vey.

The results showed that the growth of newly created jobs has been decelerating since April, especially in the country's more developed regions. Labor demand and the number of job seekers are declining in more than 100 labor markets in China, according to the survey.

"These are all indicators of the economic slowdown, and worthy of further attention," said Xin Changxing, vice-minister of Human Resources and Social Security.

As a result of urban-rural and industrial structural adjustments, a large proportion of agricultural labor now works in non-agricultural industries. In 2011, the number of migrant workers reached 253 million, according to data released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.