IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/28072.html

Pandemics, Global Supply Chains, and Local Labor Demand: Evidence from 100 Million Posted Jobs in China

Author

Listed:
  • Hanming Fang
  • Chunmian Ge
  • Hanwei Huang
  • Hongbin Li

Abstract

This paper studies how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected labor demand using over 100 million posted jobs on one of the largest online platforms in China. Our data reveals that, due to the effects of the pandemic both in China and abroad, the number of newly posted jobs within the first 13 weeks after the Wuhan lockdown on January 23, 2020 was about one third lower than that of the same lunar calendar weeks in 2018 and 2019. Using econometric methods, we show that, via the global supply chain, COVID-19 cases abroad and in particular pandemic-control policies by foreign governments reduced new job creations in China by 11.7%. We also find that Chinese firms most exposed to international trade outperformed other firms at the beginning of the pandemic but underperformed during recovery as the Novel Coronavirus spread throughout the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanming Fang & Chunmian Ge & Hanwei Huang & Hongbin Li, 2020. "Pandemics, Global Supply Chains, and Local Labor Demand: Evidence from 100 Million Posted Jobs in China," NBER Working Papers 28072, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28072
    Note: EH ITI LS PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w28072.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Erik Braun & Emese Braun & András Gyimesi & Zita Iloskics & Tamás Sebestyén, 2023. "Exposure to trade disruptions in case of the Russia–Ukraine conflict: A product network approach," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(10), pages 2950-2982, October.
    2. Gong, Da & Shang, Zhuocheng & Su, Yaqin & Yan, Andong & Zhang, Qi, 2024. "Economic impacts of China's zero-COVID policies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Sebestyén, Tamás & Szabó, Norbert & Braun, Emese & Bedő, Zsolt, 2024. "Lokális reziliencia számítása térbeli általános egyensúlyi modell felhasználásával [Measuring local resilience with a spatial computable general equilibrium model]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 1222-1253.
    4. Hu, Jiayin & Wang, Xuan & Yang, Qingxu & Yi, Junjian, 2024. "Corrigendum to “Gender disparities in the labor market during COVID-19 lockdowns: Evidence from online job postings and applications in China” [Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 223 (2024), ," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    5. Heiwai Tang & Xiuxiu Zheng, 2024. "How did China's zero Covid policy affect its exports?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 545-573, May.
    6. Zeng, Xiangquan & Chu, Shuai & Chen, Xuan, 2025. "China's labor market demand in the shadow of COVID-19: Evidence from an online job board," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    7. Zeng, Xiangquan & Chu, Shuai & Chen, Xuan, 2022. "China's Labor Market Demand in the Shadow of COVID-19: Evidence from an Online Job Board," IZA Discussion Papers 15201, IZA Network @ LISER.
    8. Zeng, Xiangquan & Chu, Shuai & Chen, Xuan, 2022. "China's Labor Market Demand in the Shadow of COVID-19: Evidence from an Online Job Board," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1074, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Kiss, Tibor & Braun, Erik & Sebestyén, Tamás, 2025. "Production network structure, specialization and unemployment: Measuring the structural resilience of national economies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 11-28.
    10. Qi Zhang & Xinxin Zhang & Qi Cui & Weining Cao & Ling He & Yexin Zhou & Xiaofan Li & Yunpeng Fan, 2022. "The Unequal Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Labour Market and Income Inequality in China: A Multisectoral CGE Model Analysis Coupled with a Micro-Simulation Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-21, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28072. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.