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Yu Mingang has helped Chinese manufacturers prepare to sell shares to the public until the cooling of the economy slows down these plans.
As the demand for audit services declined, the 25-year-old Hangzhou accountant was fired in December. Yu tightened his belt: no more movies or going out to the restaurant. He delayed the purchase of a computer.
"I pay my rent with my savings," Yu said.
The recession is hitting urban workers and entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs on whom the ruling Communist Party is counting to help turn China from a low-wage factory into a prosperous consumer market.
The economic figures still look healthy. Growth is forecast to increase by more than 6% in 2019, compared to only about 6.5% last year. But it is supported by an increase in public spending, which masks sharp declines in other areas. These frighten the public and discourage spending, which could worsen the slowdown.
A tariff war with Washington over Beijing's technological ambitions adds to the concern over job losses and falling sales of cars, real estate and consumer goods.
"I am worried about my job security and have reduced spending in all areas, including clothes, vacations and smartphone changes," said He Siying, who works for investment consulting in Beijing.
He, 32, was shaken when friends were fired. One of them found a new job but the employer wanted her to work six days a week.
"I really do not dare to spend a lot," said He, who has a one – year – old son.
This concern affects China's trading partners and global companies that are increasingly relying on Chinese consumers.
Apple Inc., General Motors Co., jeweler Tiffany & Co. and others announce a decline in sales. Auto purchases fell in 2018 for the first time in three decades. Japan and South Korea report a decline in exports of components for smartphones and other electronic products sold in China.
The slowdown in economic growth, which exceeded 14% in 2007, is partly intentional. Regulators ended loans at the end of 2017 to curb the debt boom. But the slowdown was stronger than expected.
The private sector has been hit hard.
"Many people have been fired, people are struggling to find a new job and are panicked," said Summer Li, product manager for a 28-year-old electronics company.
Yu, the accountant from Hangzhou, said that he had lost his job of 100,000 yuan a year ($ 14,000 a year) after the demand for audit services dropped by a third . Customers are abandoning their stock market plans after earnings fall below the level required by regulators.
"This is due to the bad economic situation," he said.
The ruling party promised in 2013 to support entrepreneurs who create new jobs and wealth in China. But supporters of the reform complain that President Xi Jinping's government has instead focused on the development of state-owned enterprises that dominate the oil, banking and other sectors.
Under the shock of the crisis, Xi and other leaders pledged to help private companies by cutting taxes and regulations.
Prime Minister Li Keqiang, a senior economist, met with bankers in December and told them to make 30% of new loans to private companies, state media reports said. The central bank announced December 19 a loan fund of 100 billion yuan ($ 14 billion) for small businesses.
Exports to the United States have held up until the end of 2018 despite President Donald Trump's tariff increases. But sales were down 3.5% in December from a year earlier as these penalties began to weigh on demand.
Nervous businesses and consumers were already holding back their investments and big purchases.
"Consumer confidence is weaker and uncertainty has increased.The US-China trade war is contributing to this," said Rajiv Biswas, chief economist for IHS Markit for the Asia-Pacific region. "This is obviously a risk for the growth outlook for 2019."
The slowdown is accentuating the pressure related to the radical changes in jobs and the industry already underway.
The ruling party has eliminated millions of jobs in steel and coal mines during a marathon campaign to reduce the burden on state-owned smothered industries.
Since 2017, Beijing, Shanghai and other large cities have been hunting migrant workers without official permission to live there. Local leaders say they want to reduce overcrowding, but restaurants, retailers, and other businesses depend on migrants as employees and more and more as customers.
The sales manager at a Beijing dealership of one of China's largest automakers said that purchases had dropped by half. He questioned the departure of migrants who buy cheaper models from 50,000 yuan ($ 7,000).
"Many of these clients have returned to their hometown because they did not have a lot of work," said the manager, who asked that his employer and himself not be identified by their name . "Sales of high-end cars have also fallen because buyers own businesses that serve migrant workers."
Overall, disposable income of consumers grew by 5.7% in the first three quarters of 2018, while it was 6.6% in 2017. Retail sales growth fell to 8.6 % lower than expected compared to the previous year in November, its lowest rate in five months.
Construction, the industry that has fueled China's boom in recent decades, is also in trouble.
According to Anne Stevenson-Yang of J Capital Research, a research firm in finance, short-term developers in northwestern China resorted to paid contractors.
Entrepreneurs hope to sell later, but some developments are vacant three-quarters, said Stevenson-Yang.
The owner of a Cantonese restaurant in southwestern Beijing said that she wanted to give up and return to her hometown near Shanghai, but could not find a buyer for the trade.
"I make a profit but I can not earn much," said the owner, who would only give her last name, Yue.
Economists expect the economic slowdown to stabilize this year as stimulus measures put in place by the government intensify.
But cautious consumers like Paige Fu, badistant general manager of a film company, are wary.
"I'm afraid the economy will continue to slide," Fu said.
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Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.
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