Top Biz News
Holiday labor shortages
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-14 08:01
Wage inflation
While job centers are often teeming, workers are becoming choosier, preferring work at bigger factories and holding off for better pay, leading to creeping wage inflation in some parts.
Of the 20 million migrant workers out of work early this year, some 14 million or so across China had found work by June, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.
While the report didn't give a regional breakdown, it said 66.7 percent of migrant workers took jobs in eastern coastal areas, while 32.9 percent found work in central and western China, suggesting a significant number were now staying in the interior.
"Before, China was poor, so this region was very attractive," said Liu Hong, head of the Longguan job market in Shenzhen's Longgang district.
"Wages and benefits were many times higher than the inland. But because of China's economic development, the difference is getting less and less, so fewer people are coming out here," Liu said.
The improved situation on the ground accords with recent purchasing managers' index data suggesting that orders are on the rise.
But overall trade numbers remain weak, suggesting the increase isn't yet across the board, with Chinese exports in August falling a steep 23.4 percent year-on-year.
"The orders have become smaller, less frequent and with a shorter period of delivery. The orders are not continuous like before," said Hu Yifan, chief economist at Citic Securities.
"The recovery of exports will stabilize, but not be very strong going forward," Hu said.
China's export sector now makes up roughly a third of its GDP, and exports are vital in providing long-term employment for China's masses.
For minnows like the Yuang Kang toy factory in Dongguan, that makes stuffed dolls, including Santa Clauses and grinning snowmen, there's not much to cheer about this Christmas.
