- Title: CHINA: China export hub fears labour exodus over new year
- Date: 24th February 2010
- Summary: DONGGUAN, GUAGNDONG PROVINCE, CHINA (FEBRUARY 22, 2010) (REUTERS) DONGGUAN TRAIN STATION VARIOUS OF MIGRANT WORKERS STREAMING OFF TRAINS MIGRANT WORKERS IN DONGGUAN BUS TERMINAL MIGRANT WORKER ZHOU XINHUA STRUGGLING WITH LUGGAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) MIGRANT WORKER ZHOU XINHUA SAYING: "Of course I wish my salary would rise along with my growing professional knowledge as much as possible, after all salary is the fundamental to improve my life." DONGGUAN BUS STATION MAN HOLDING SIGN WITH DESTINATION OF FACTORY WOMAN TRYING TO DIRECT WORKERS TO HER BUS DONGGUAN BUS STATION DONGGUAN JOB CENTRE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LOOKING AT VACANCIES OUTSIDE JOB CENTRE SHENZHEN, GUANGDONG PROVINCE, CHINA (FEBRUARY 22, 2010) (REUTERS) RECRUITMENT BOOTH ON PAVEMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FACTORY BOSS GOU JIE SAYING: "Last year we held a large recruitment drive in cities such as Zhongshan and Dongguan. I learned on the Internet today that a two million labour force gap can be expected in the Pearl River Delta this year, and this situation may last for the next two years." MIGRANT WORKERS LISTENING TO GOU (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FACTORY BOSS GOU JIE SAYING: "The reason, how do you say, is because of certain national policies. There are factories in the hometown of the migrant workers now where they can earn one to two thousand yuan ($150-300 U.S. dollars) per month, it seems that there is no need for them to come to Guangzhou to work for the same salary, is there?" (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) UNIDENTIFIED MIGRANT WORKER SAYING: "Basically one should earn about 2,000 yuan ($300 U.S. dollars) to maintain a reasonable living standard. If it's too low, and we can't maintain a proper living standard, what is the point of working here?" INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY OBSERVATION, LIU KAIMING (SOUNDBITE) (English) INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY OBSERVATION, LIU KAIMING, SAYING: "Many families have only one child, two child, no more than three children. So, you know, on one hand, the economic development needs more and more labour force, but the One Child Policy provide less and less labour force. The gap is bigger and bigger." VARIOUS OF MIGRANT WORKERS GETTING ON BUSES
- Embargoed: 11th March 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: Employment,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVABRID27FIAF603BUEKKEZ252X3
- Story Text: Better wages and job opportunities in China's poorer interior regions are leaving factory bosses in the Pearl River Delta's manufacturing hubs scrambling to recruit and retain workers, as Western orders for Chinese goods gather pace again.
This year's Lunar New Year holiday is making industrialists in China's Pearl River Delta nervous.
Traditionally a time when migrant workers return en masse from rural villages and inland provinces from an emotional homecoming after a year of hard labor, this year it seems fewer are returning to the southern manufacturing hub dubbed "the factory of the world".
Last year's Chinese New Year holiday proved a watershed for China's vast migrant worker population, as an estimated 20 million out of the estimated 50 million workers in the region were laid off as factories shuttered during the height of the global financial crisis.
Increasingly though, in a stark reversal, migrant workers are choosing not to return despite a flush of jobs as factory orders pick up and firms clamour to hire again.
Better wages and job opportunities in China's poorer interior are partly the reason, with less incentive for enduring tough, homesick, stints on factory floors in coastal regions such as the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze Delta in eastern China.
Those who do return, want to take advantage of the labour shortage and are on the look-out for jobs with better pay and conditions.
"Of course I wish my salary would rise along with my growing professional knowledge as much as possible, after all salary is the fundamental to improve my life," said Zhou Xinhua, returning from the northern province of Hubei.
Staff at Dongguan's bus station, directing the arriving migrant workers onto factory buses, said that the numbers were roughly half of what they saw the same time last year.
Outside job centres, a handful of workers scanned the factory vacancies looking for better job offers.
The influential Federation of Hong Kong Industries sees a fresh wave of departures coupled with ramped up production targets, curtailing the potential and manufacturing capacity of Hong Kong-owned factories clustered in the Pearl River Delta.
They estimate there will be a shortfall of around one million workers after the Lunar New Year and may have to outsource production to nearby provinces like Jiangxi and Hunan.
Factories have been forced to set up make-shift recruitment booths on pavements or from vans, hoping to attract workers so they can meet their increased production quotas.
"Last year we held a large recruitment drive in cities such as Zhongshan and Dongguan. I learned on the Internet today that a two million labour force gap can be expected in the Pearl River Delta this year, and this situation may last for the next two years," said foreman Gou Jie, who said he had only managed to recruit ten out of 50 workers needed for his electronics factory.
"The reason, how do you say, is because of certain national policies. There are factories in the hometown of the migrant workers now where they can earn one to two thousand yuan ($150-300 U.S. dollars) per month, it seems that there is no need for them to come to Guangzhou to work for the same salary, is there?" he said.
His comments were echoed by a woman listening to his recruitment pitch.
She complained the average job in the region only offered around 1,000 yuan or $150 U.S. dollars.
"Basically one should earn about 2,000 yuan ($300 U.S. dollars) to maintain a reasonable living standard. If it's too low, and we can't maintain a proper living standard, what is the point of working here?" she asked, declining to give her name.
Last month, eastern Jiangsu province, part of the Yangtze River Delta which has in recent years overtaken the Pearl River Delta as China's major export hub, hiked its minimum wage by 13 percent to 960 yuan ($140 U.S. dollars).
The move was hinting at the gravity with which policy-makers saw a labour supply shrinkage, particularly given the risk of squeezing still vulnerable exporters facing wafer-thin margins to attract hard-up Western clients.
The Pearl River Delta's competitiveness and allure is widely considered to be falling further behind the newer and more advanced manufacturing landscape of its eastern rival.
Authorities in Guangdong, home to the Pearl River Delta which churns out around a third of China's exports, are also reportedly considering a minimum wage hike after the Chinese New Year.
Liu Kaiming, who heads the Institute of Contemporary Observation, a Shenzhen think-tank, expects an 80 percent chance of a hike.
But he says due to China's one-child police, worker shortages in China have become more and more apparent, with last year's economic crisis reversing the trend only briefly.
"Many families have only one child, two child, no more than three children. So, you know, on one hand the economic development needs more and more labour force, but the One Child Policy provide less and less labour force. The gap is bigger and bigger," said Liu.
Free market forces may yet recalibrate sticky wage rates in the absence of explicit policy initiatives, analysts say, with anecdotal evidence of firms not only using tactics such as cheating migrant workers to stay on, but also plying them with perks such as holiday return bonuses and discretionary pay hikes.
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