ABSTRACT
Within the dramatic growth of China’s economy over the last decade, the service industry has been increasing its share in overall GDP. In 2008, the value of service industry output had reached RMB 12,048.66 billion, or 40.1 per cent of GDP. As Table 12.1 shows, service industry employment levels have also been gradually increasing, both on aggregate and as a share of total employment. Thus, in 2008, total employment in the service industry was 257.17 million, which represented 33.2 per cent of China’s total employment (National Bureau of Statistics of China 2009). Further, more fragmentary evidence (below) suggests that, while business activity and employment in the service industry suffered, during 2009, from the effects of the global financial crisis, recovery from the end of that year has been rapid and strong. The service industry: number of employees and percentage of total employment https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Year
China’s total employed workforce (10,000 persons)
Tertiary industry employment (10,000 persons)
Service industry as proportion of toal employment (%)
2000
72,085
19,823
27.5
2001
73,025
20,228
27.7
2002
73,740
21,090
28.6
2003
74,432
21,809
29.3
2004
75,200
23,011
30.6
2005
75,825
23,771
31.3
2006
76,400
24,614
32.2
2007
76,990
24,917
32.4
2008
77,480
25,717
33.8
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook 2009.