(Yicai Global) Sept. 16 -- More than 80 percent of those employed in China’s cities work for private companies, demonstrating that the private economy is playing the role of “stabilizer” in the country’s job market, according to a report recently released by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

There were 10.94 million people employed in China’s top 500 private enterprises last year, accounting for 1.47 percent of the country’s total workforce, and slightly less than the 11.09 million in 2020, according to the federation’s annual private enterprise survey.

E-commerce giant JD.com was the largest employer for the second year running, with a headcount of 385,400 people. Auto manufacturer BYD came second with 288,200, followed by Apple supplier Luxshare Precision Industry, telecoms firm Huawei Technologies and express delivery company SF Express.

All of the top five employers expanded their workforce in 2021, with the exception of Shenzhen-based Huawei whose headcount fell by 1,800 people. SF Express logged the fastest recruitment growth, with over 50,000 new hires, boosting its ranking to fifth from 14th in 2020.

Some 68 percent of the workforce in the top 500 were employed at manufacturing enterprises, the report said. The sectors with the most work placements were computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing, construction, Internet and related services, electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing and ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing with a combined 4.8 million employees.

The computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing sector was the biggest hirer. Some 1.29 million people found employment in this sector last year, a 20 percent gain on 2020.

Net profit at the top 500 private companies tumbled 12.2 percent last year from a year earlier to CNY1.7 trillion (USD250 billion), while revenue jumped 9.1 percent to CNY38.3 trillion (USD5.4 trillion). Their total assets slumped 17.9 percent to CNY41.6 trillion.

Editor: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor