Addressing the COVID-19 Shock: The Potential Job Creation in China by the RCEP

Xinxiong Wu (), Chen Chen Yong and Su Teng Lee
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Xinxiong Wu: Institute for Advanced Studies, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Chen Chen Yong: Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Su Teng Lee: Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: In 2020, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) left around 81% of the global workforce, nearly 2.7 billion workers, affected. Employment in China was the first to be hit by COVID-19. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is expected to bring dynamism to China’s employment market in an era of long COVID-19. This study aims to examine the number of sectoral jobs that the RCEP will create in China, with the number of skilled or unskilled labour employed in each sector. The exogenous shocks to the RCEP can be reflected in the number of jobs created through multipliers based on a social accounting matrix compiled from China’s input-output tables in 2017, combined with the employment satellite accounts compiled. The results show that the RCEP is expected to create over 17 million potential jobs in China, with unskilled labour accounting for 10.44 million and skilled labour for 6.77 million. It is even expected that there will be job losses in the metalworking machinery sector. The contribution of this paper can serve as a reference for policies to protect vulnerable sectors, further open up trade markets and strengthen cooperation among RCEP members as important measures to address the employment impact of long COVID-19.

Keywords: coronavirus disease (COVID-19); Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP); social accounting matrix (SAM); job creation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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