Chinese factories have to adjust to new labor demands

• Source: Global Times
• [22:56 February 24 2010]
• Comments

Illustration: Liu Rui

By Xiao Kailin

Factories in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces have been frantically trying to hire new workers after the Spring Festival.

The Pearl River and Yangtze River delta areas, two of the export heartlands of China, used to be a paradise for rural migrant workers, attracting millions to come and seek the road to prosperity. As the impact of the financial crisis is fading, orders have been flooding in from abroad in these two areas.

But they are facing an increasing difficulty in finding workers. The former tide of migrant workers has slowed to an ebb. It seems that Chinese workers no longer want to be part of the "world factory," leading to the unique phenomenon of a labor shortfall.

The migrant workers left not because their dreams have been realized. Their ambitions have not been halted, but they have to look elsewhere to fulfill them. Facing increasingly high housing prices, medical fees and educational expenses, many find it hard to afford the high expense and can do nothing but leave.

Moreover, with the recent economic development of China's central and western regions, factories in coastal areas with low salaries have begun to lose their appeal for migrant workers. Thus many workers choose to work in inland cities, closer to their hometowns and offering higher salaries relative to the cost of living.

From the "tide of rural migrant workers" to the current "labor shortage," China's cheap labor force, which used to be considered bottomless, is now coming up short. It is one of the many pieces of evidence that indicate a series of emerging structural changes in China's labor force market after the financial crisis.

The new generation of migrant workers, mostly born in the 1980s and 1990s, have higher goals not only when it comes to their salary but also for their rights and job prospects. They move to places that provide good working conditions and salaries, and can offer them a future beyond the assembly line.

They are far more conscious of their rights and ambitions, and can no longer endure the old system of low wages and high workload. Living on the fringes of urbanization, they do not enjoy the same guaranteed rights or access to services as city residents, all of which has deepened their determination to leave the coastal cities.

The labor force is the most basic element of the economy. Its mobilization often reflects the overall economic situation. The current shortage of labor shows that it's time for China to say goodbye to an economy built chiefly off the backs of underpaid workers.

The traditional mode, which depends on cheap labor to develop the economy, or even considers cheap labor as a comparative advantage, is gradually being phased out. Both the economic structure and the structure of labor force need to be upgraded.