Pay hikes good for 'long term'

Job sector will benefit from higher wages despite worries over moves abroad

BEIJING - Wage increases in a number of the country's labor-intensive industries will be good for employment in the long term, a senior official with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has said.

"For low-level enterprises developing extensively, such as those that involve earning only a few cents from making shoes or toys, it doesn't matter if they move out of China because of wage hikes," Yu Faming, director of employment promotion department in the ministry, was quoted by the Beijing News on Wednesday.