Nearly a third of Chinese office workers reported falling salaries last year, the highest share in at least six years, underscoring persistent deflationary pressures in the world’s second-largest economy, reports Bloomberg (paywall). About 32% of white-collar workers in China surveyed by the online recruitment platform Zhaopin Ltd said their wages dropped last year. That’s the largest proportion going back to at least 2018. The survey published this month suggests that more Chinese employers are holding back from increasing wages, a dynamic that can prolong deflation. While deflation can boost individuals’ purchasing power, it’s widely seen as a threat to the economy as a whole.

Meanwhile, about 19% of workers said their salaries were stable in 2023. Approximately 44% reported an increase, the highest number since 2019, though well below the share pre-pandemic. The widening divergence suggests the labour market is increasing in inequality. Average salaries offered by companies to new hires in major Chinese cities fell 1.3% year-on-year in the last quarter of 2023, according to a separate survey from Zhaopin released earlier this month. This was the largest drop since at least 2016.