Worker dearth worsening
- Source: Global Times
- [02:05 February 22 2010]
- Comments
Help for migrants
The labor scarcity is not only a result of the sudden rise in demand in the coastal export hubs. Wu Yaowu, a researcher of labor at the China Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that many local governments of inland regions have launched policies to help migrant workers find jobs after they returned to their hometowns amid the crisis.
"If they could find jobs with similar pay at home or in nearby cities, why would they travel to areas far away from their families?" Wu asked.
Many manufacturers, previously located in coastal cities, have moved inland, which also contributes to local employment, Wu added.
He suggested that manufacturers in coastal areas take this as a chance to change their growth pattern and accelerate industrial and technological upgrading.
Tan Bing, a researcher at the Development Research Center in Guangdong, said the economic recovery after the crisis is just a trigger of the labor shortage, which can be traced back to five to six years ago.
"The real reason is that the era of "low-cost labor" has gone. The poor salaries, which were not compatible with the heavy labor intensity, are no longer attractive to migrant workers," Tan was quoted by the China Economic Times as saying.
The new generation of workers born in the 1980s and 1990s also pay more attention to the guarantee of their legal rights and the prospect of the job, Tan said.
Upgrade needed
The central government, however, has not detected a drop in unemployment rates due to the labor shortage, which has seasonal, periodical and regional characteristics.
Yin Chengji, spokesperson with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said last month that the emerging labor shortages in some regions did not indicate a fundamental improvement in the employment situation in China.
"College graduates and those with high-school qualifications from rural areas are the two new forces to hit the country's job market this year. With rising numbers in these two groups, the prospect of the employment situation remains grim, and the employment task is still arduous," Yin said.
According to two surveys carried by the Guangzhou Human Resource Service Center, more than 40 percent of 600 manufacturing enterprises require mechanic certificates from applicants, while only 10 percent of 5,000 interviewed migrant workers possess such certificates.
"The lack of technically skilled workers always exists. The upgrading of labor and career trains should catch up with industrial upgrading," Zhang Baoying, director of the center, told the International Finance News.
Qiu Wei contributed to this story
