Three million jobs created in EU due to trade with China: study

BRUSSELS, June 1 (Greenpost) — About three million Europeans have jobs because of export from the European Union (EU) to China, according to a study released on Monday here by EU institutions.

The share of employment supported by EU export increased from 9.3 percent in 1995 to 13.6 percent in 2011, said the study on impact of extra-EU trade on income and jobs, which was jointly published by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission.

In total, over 31 million jobs in the EU depend on exports.

Citing the data from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), the study found that 10 percent of EU export related employment was driven by the sales of goods and services to China in 2011, or three million jobs was given to Europeans in all EU member states due to trade with China in that year.

Though the United States is taking a lead in trade with the EU by now, China is taking ground from it, figures indicated.

Compared with 1995, the share of EU employment supported by EU-China trade went up to 10.1 percent in 2011 from 2.29 percent. Meanwhile, the U.S.-related figures in the same period dropped from 20.5 percent to 14.6 percent.

According to the report, among the EU member states, Germany, Britain and Italy created the highest number of jobs in EU exports to the rest of the world.

In 2011, Germany created some 7.1 million export related jobs domestically, of which 15.1 percent were driven by its sales of goods and services to China, said the report.

Meanwhile, in Finland and the Netherlands more than 15 percent of the employment supported by EU exports was dependent on the Chinese market. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson