A shortage of labour? In a country of 1.3 billion people? After millions of migrants were laid off when thousands of factories closed in the aftermath of the global economic crash?
China’s complex labour situation regularly confounds overseas observers – not least because the ‘free movement of people’ theory is simply not applied here. For unskilled (or even skilled) workers to obtain jobs in another city or province to that in which they are registered citizens requires an enormous amount of bureaucracy – and persistence.
Before the global crash, the system, of course, had a few inbuilt checks and balances – to ensure that the ‘Factory of the World,’ which relies heavily on migrant labour, could function. However, with millions of scorned (and often, unpaid) migrant workers having returned to the hinterland, attracting them back is not proving as quick or as easy as manufacturers might hope.
Hence, a report this week in state media that although east-coast factories in some sectors are noticing an upturn in export orders and production schedules, many are struggling to find workers to fulfil them.
According to the report, the factories suffering labour shortages tend to be small and medium-sized operators in the industrial heartlands of Zhejiang and Guangdong – both of which are major employers of migrant workers from inland China. Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province, a city where garment orders rose 10 per cent year on year in July, has a rural labour shortage of around 150,000 workers, according to official figures. Garments and shoes account for 45 per cent of the city’s exports.
Balancing the issue of labour shortages in fast-expanding cities and rapid urban migration is a major challenge for the Chinese government – which this week estimated that around 300 million rural Chinese will migrate to the cities in the next 20 years (see here for more details: http://www.bizchina-update.com/content/view/2576/2/).
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Order Books Are Showing Signs of Life, But Where Are The Workers?
A shortage of labour? In a country of 1.3 billion people? After millions of migrants were laid off when thousands of factories closed in the aftermath of the global economic crash?
China’s complex labour situation regularly confounds overseas observers – not least because the ‘free movement of people’ theory is simply not applied here. For unskilled (or even skilled) workers to obtain jobs in another city or province to that in which they are registered citizens requires an enormous amount of bureaucracy – and persistence.
Before the global crash, the system, of course, had a few inbuilt checks and balances – to ensure that the ‘Factory of the World,’ which relies heavily on migrant labour, could function. However, with millions of scorned (and often, unpaid) migrant workers having returned to the hinterland, attracting them back is not proving as quick or as easy as manufacturers might hope.
Hence, a report this week in state media that although east-coast factories in some sectors are noticing an upturn in export orders and production schedules, many are struggling to find workers to fulfil them.
According to the report, the factories suffering labour shortages tend to be small and medium-sized operators in the industrial heartlands of Zhejiang and Guangdong – both of which are major employers of migrant workers from inland China. Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province, a city where garment orders rose 10 per cent year on year in July, has a rural labour shortage of around 150,000 workers, according to official figures. Garments and shoes account for 45 per cent of the city’s exports.
Balancing the issue of labour shortages in fast-expanding cities and rapid urban migration is a major challenge for the Chinese government – which this week estimated that around 300 million rural Chinese will migrate to the cities in the next 20 years (see here for more details: http://www.bizchina-update.com/content/view/2576/2/).
This entry was posted on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 at 9:37 am and is filed under News commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.