Chinese Businesses on Hiring Rampage

Eight months ago, Chinese factories were plagued with rioting laid-off workers—and now they can’t hire fast enough, reports The New York Times. Whereas American economists are fretting about a “jobless recovery,” Chinese factories are already complaining that they can’t hire fast enough to fill Christmas orders. Confidence is up and Shanghai’s real-estate market is booming; by most measures, China is back on top. How did they do it so much faster than the rest of the world? The Times argues that China’s tripartite strategy of “stimulus, liberal bank lending, and broad government support for exports” made for a speedy recovery. The state-controlled banks got through the financial crisis mostly unscathed, and were able to inject $1.2 trillion in extra lending quickly, when the economy most needed it. In the second quarter, China reported a 14.9 percent growth for its national economy, whereas the U.S. reported a 1 percent decline. Chinese and American economies are so often discussed in the same breath, the Times points out, that it’s easy to forget that the economies are not always in step.