In many industrialized areas in China, the labor force’s “share” of GDP, meaning the proportion of provincial output that is distributed as wages, rather than going to capital and government, fell between 1997 and 2007.

More than 80% of last year’s special U.S. visas for immigrant entrepreneurs were issued to people from China, up from just 13% a decade ago.

Welcome to the next installment of The Conference Board China Center Chart of the Week series, hosted here on the Human Capital Exchange. This week, we’re exploring an unprecedented subject that undermines the conventional wisdom that China’s low-cost labor advantage is functionally limitless.

Welcome to the next installment of The Conference Board China Center Chart of the Week series. This week we’ll take a look at the drivers of labor demand in China – which provide an illuminating view of China’s overall economy – and compare how those same drivers contribute to GDP growth.

We will take a look at a uniquely Chinese institutional tradition, the gaokao – China’s national college entrance exam – to attend one of China’s 2409 colleges and universities, to see if we can glean additional wisdom about the future of China’s human capital environment.

We’ve been discussing the characteristics of the Chinese labor force with regards to shifting educational levels. Now we turn to a different topic – the availability of young female employees may decline even faster than the working-age population overall.