China's labor market demand in the shadow of COVID-19: Evidence from an online job board

Xiangquan Zeng, Shuai Chu and Xuan Chen

Journal of Asian Economics, 2025, vol. 97, issue C

Abstract: Using data of the largest online job board in China, Zhaopin.com, we examine the impacts of the lockdown policy on the Chinese labor market demand during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The analyses reveal that the lockdown policy, which was implemented in Wuhan on January 23, 2020, reduced the labor market demand drastically. Specifically, the “Number of Companies” that posted weekly job vacancies, “Number of Positions,” and “Number of Employees” to be recruited reduced rapidly by 15.7 %, 18 %, and 23 %, respectively. Furthermore, this impact of the lockdown policy began to reduce, thus allowing the labor demand to rebound four weeks after the outbreak. The heterogeneity analyses reveal that the industries with high physical proximity and those manufacturing non-essential products/services, as well as small-size firms, were greatly impacted by the policy. The adverse impacts in the cities that implemented specific control measures were stronger than in those that did not. This study quantifies the dynamic impacts of China’s stringent control measures on the country’s labor demand during the pandemic. These findings indicate that the effective management of public health crises in conjunction with economic policies is critical to revitalizing labor markets.

Keywords: COVID-19; lockdown; job vacancy; online job board; labor demand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J23 J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:asieco:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s1049007825000090

DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2025.101885

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