Mastercard Caixin BBD China New Economy Index(April 2018)

Released: 10:00 am Beijing Time May-02-2018

Overview

In April 2018, the Mastercard Caixin BBD New Economy Index (NEI) reading came in at 29.7, indicating that the New Economy accounted for 29.7% of overall economic input activities that month, down 1.6 ppts from March (Chart 1). The declining NEI was due to the decrease of technology input and capital input. New economy is defined as following: 1) human capital intensive, technology intensive and capital light; 2) sustainable rapid growth, and 3) in line with the strategic new industries defined by the government. Please refer to our previous reports (March 2016 and March 2017) for the list of NEI sectors.

Primary Inputs

The NEI includes labor, capital and technology inputs that account for 40%, 35% and 25% of the total weights of the index, respectively. The decline in the April NEI reading came from the decrease of technology input and capital input (Chart 2). Technology input index fluctuated widely since October 2017, coming in at 30.6, with 3.0 MoM decrease. Capital investment showed a slow growth trend since September 2017, but it declined to 31.3 this month, with 1.8 MoM decrease. Labor input index declined moderately since July 2017, decreasing slightly to 27.9 this month, with 0.4 MoM decrease.

Taking the weight into account, percentage changes in labor, capital and technology inputs were -0.1, -0.6, and -0.8 ppts, respectively. The net NEI change was -1.5 ppts in total (Chart 3). 

Looking at the sectors, the New IT industry formed the largest proportion of the New Economy Index, contributing 8.9 ppts to NEI. Advanced Equipment Manufacturing was the industry with fastest growth in April, contributing 4.3 ppts and ranking the second. Culture, Sports & Entertainment came fifth from third, the biggest drop in ranking, contributing 3.2 ppts in April (Chart 4). 

New Economy Employment

In April 2018, the average monthly entry level salary of the New Economy was RMB 10,420 per month, increasing from last month’s level of RMB 10,265 (Chart 5). New Economy wage information is compiled from online websites of career platforms and recruitment services including 51job and Zhaopin, as well as other sites that list job demands.

Hiring in the New Economy sectors accounted for 27.4% of total hiring in April, slightly lower than the previous month’s 27.7%. At the same time, the total compensation share of New Economy sectors decreased slightly to 28.4%, which meant the average entry salary level of New Economy was lower than national average entry wage level. The entry level salary premium of the New Economy was 3.9% as compared to economy-wide counterparts, decreasing from 4.2% in March (Chart 6). In the recent half year, the average salary premium of the New Economy was lower than the first half year generally.

Decomposition of New Established Enterprises

We use newly-established enterprises data to monitor new enterprises in sub-sectors (Chart 7).

Sub-sectors which were continuously ranking up in last 2 years include the following: Architectural Engineering (No.23 in 2016, rising to No.17 and No.12 in 2017 and 2018, 0.20% and 0.13% increase in proportion in 2017 and 2018 respectively); Materials (No. 19 in 2016, rising to No. 18 and No. 16 in 2017 and 2018, 0.12% and 0.06% increase in proportion 2017 and 2018 respectively).

Sub-sectors which were continuously ranking down in 2 last years include the following: Communication (No. 13 in 2016, dropping to No. 19 and No. 22 in 2017 and 2018, 0.16% and 0.02% decrease in proportion 2017 and 2018 respectively); Logistics (No. 18 in 2016, dropping to No. 22 and No. 24 in 2017 and 2018, 0.04% increase and 0.04% decrease in proportion 2017 and 2018 respectively).

Sub-sectors with fluctuating ranks in last 2 years include the following: Trade (No.3 in 2016, dropped to No.5 in 2017 and rose to No 3 in 2018); E-commerce (No.9 in 2016, dropped to No.16 in 2017 and rose to No 13 in 2018); Plantation (No.25 in 2016, rose to No.9 in 2017 and dropped to No 21 in 2018); Media (No.22 in 2016, dropped to No.24 in 2017 and rose to No 19 in 2018). Other subsectors with fluctuating ranks were IT, Culture, Automobile, Education, Agriculture，Service and Engineering.

Employment in Sectors of New IT Industry

We analyze the employment in different sectors of New IT industry. For simplicity, we break value chain in New IT industry into three parts, each of which is represented by some specific job positions.

a) Fundamental: chip engineer and integrated circuit engineer;

b) Operations: algorithm engineer;

c) Delivery: front-end engineer.

From January 2016 to the first half of 2017, the employment recruitment ratio of chip engineers, algorithm engineers and front-end engineers in China was stable at 1:4:30, indicating an imbalance of the New IT industry value chain. The demand for labor in New IT industry is low in manufacturing sectors and remarkably high in sales and service sectors.

However, the employment recruitment ratio changed significantly since half a year ago. After October 2017, the demand for the front-end engineers declined sharply and demand for the chip engineers and the algorithm engineers started to increase. In particular, the demand for the chip engineers soared to more than four times as much since January 2016, surpassing the need for algorithm engineers (Chart 8).

Moreover, the average salary of chip engineers climbed faster than that of algorithm and front-end engineers (Chart 9). In April 2018, the average salary of chip engineers was 80% higher than that in January 2016, in comparison to 40% increase for front-end engineers in the meantime.

In spite of U.S. sanctions on ZTE, we are optimistic on China’s New IT industry based on data above. The chip industry China built in 2015 began production recently, which created demand for qualified engineers. The imbalance will be relieved in the learning-by-doing process.

City Rankings of the New Economy

Based on overall New Economy rankings, the top twenty cities were shown in Chart 10. The top five cities were Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Hangzhou. Rankings are based on a weighted average of the percentile rank of indicators for the city in the past 6 months.

Chart 11 showed the average NEI city rankings between October 2017 and April 2018. The top five cities were Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Ji’nan. 

For further information please contact:

Mastercard

Mr. Wu Huanyu, Director, Communications

Tel：+86-10-8519-9304

Email：Huanyu_wu@mastercard.com

Caixin Insight Group

Dr. Wang Zhe, Senior Economist

Tel：+86-10-85905019

Emails：zhewang@caixin.com

Ma Ling, Public Relations

Tel：+86-10-8590-5204

Email：lingma@caixin.com

BBD

Dr. Chen Qin, Chief Economist

Tel：+86-28-65290823

Emails：chenqin@bbdservice.com

The Mastercard Caixin BBD China New Economy Index is the fruit of a research partnership between Caixin Insight Group and BBD, in collaboration with the National Development School, Peking University. The subject of a year of research, the NEI was first publically released on March 2, 2016 and will be issued the 2nd of every month at 10:00am China Standard Time.

About Caixin

Caixin Media is China's leading media group dedicated to providing financial and business news through periodicals, online content, mobile applications, conferences, books and TV/video programs. Caixin Media aims to blaze a trail that helps traditional media prosper in the new media age through integrated multimedia platforms. Caixin Insight Group is a high-end financial data and analysis platform. For more information, please visit www.caixin.com.

About Mastercard

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard’s products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MastercardAP and @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.

About BBD (Business Big Data)

BBD is a leading Big Data and quantitative business analytics firm specializing in the analysis of the high-growth industries emerging in Mainland China. Through dynamic data tracking, credit analysis, risk pricing and economic index construction, BBD provides its clients with a wide range of services at both the macro and micro level. For more information, please visit http://www.bbdservice.com/.

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