The contribution of high value-added industries such as biotech to China’s total economic inputs slipped in December due chiefly to a drop in labor inputs, a Caixin index showed Monday.
The Caixin BBD New Economy Index (NEI) came in at 29.7 last month, indicating that monitored new economy industries accounted for 29.7% of China’s overall economic input activities. The reading is down 0.3 points from 30 in November.
The NEI uses big data to track the size of China’s nascent sectors. It measures labor, capital and technology inputs in 10 emerging industries relative to those in all industries.
The dip last month stemmed mainly from a decline in the labor input subindex, which has a 40% weighting in the overall NEI. The subindex, which measures employee income and the number of positions in the new economy industries, dropped 2.9 points from November to 24.2.
Meanwhile, the technology input subindex, which has a weighing of 25% and gauges the number of research personnel recruited by the tracked industries, as well as the number of inventions created and patents obtained, fell 0.3 points to 27.9 last month.
In contrast, the subindex for capital inputs, with a weighing of 35%, gained 2.5 points to 37.2 in December.
Launched in March 2016, the NEI defines a new economy industry as one that is technology- and human capital-intensive, but asset-light, experiences sustainable and rapid growth, and is strategically encouraged by the government.
Of the 10 tracked industries, the new information technology industry remained the largest contributor in December, accounting for 9.6 points of the NEI reading. The biomedicine sector ranked second, contributing 4.5 points.
The average monthly entry-level salary in the 10 industries stood at 14,080 yuan ($2,045) in December, according to data compiled from online career and recruitment websites, up 418 yuan from the previous month.
Monthly NEI reports are written by Caixin Data Technology Co. Ltd. and Chinese big-data research firm BBD, in collaboration with the National School of Development at Peking University.
Contact reporter Zhang Ziyu (ziyuzhang@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
Read more about Caixin’s economic indexes.
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