Young hosts livestream to promote their products on Taobao, a leading online shopping platform in China. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The digital economy is becoming a major driving force in promoting employment in Guangdong province, cushioning the crippling blow dealt by the coronavirus pandemic.
Bruised by the public-health crisis, many companies in the traditional industries, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, have been forced to shut down or lay off employees.
Meanwhile, the tech revolution has brought much cheer and relief to people desperate for work amid a sluggish economy.
The growing integration of the real economy and digital technologies has given birth to new business models, creating new jobs.
The booming livestreaming sector, for instance, is among the leaders in the pack with a large number of jobs on offer. According to data from e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, Guangdong took the top slot nationwide in terms of the number of new hosts on Taobao Live — the livestreaming arm of the Hangzhou-based conglomerate — from March to May, with the number soaring sixfold year-on-year.
Wu Yingxin, an associate professor of economics at Lingnan College of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said the digital economy is expected to spur a huge demand for technical personnel and professionals in emerging business fields in the long term.
The emerging economy also helps to create employment by changing the traditional model of job hunting. As the pandemic has greatly done away with face-to-face interviews, more employers are shifting their recruitment procedures online, reducing the outbreak’s impact on the job market.
“Although I’m unable to travel to seek jobs in other cities due to the public-health crisis, I still see plenty of opportunities as many enterprises are recruiting people online,” said Tan Xinrui, 26, a graduate of Shenzhen University.
Guangdong has made big strides in developing the digital economy in recent years. The provincial government launched a development plan in August, saying it will strive to turn itself into a global innovation center for the digital economy within five to eight years.
The nation’s digital economy has seen exponential growth, accounting for 36.2 percent of last year’s GDP, surging from 2.6 trillion yuan (US$370 billion) in 2005 to 35.8 trillion yuan last year, according to the latest report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. Guangdong led other provinces in the overall development of the digital economy, with the added value of industrial digitalization hitting 3 trillion yuan in 2019, the report said.
