Drought of Migrant Labor
Beijing Review | 5 aug
by Fan Ren
http://www.bjreview.com.cn/200431/Nation-200431(A).htm
This year has seen the flood of migrant laborers, who traditionally
travel to thriving coastal provinces in search of work, reduced to a
trickle. As a result, many private companies have been adversely
affected by this shortfall in labor, with some even having to downsize
production or temporarily close their plants. What are the reasons
behind this phenomenon?
Shishi, a coastal city in Fujian Province, nicknamed City of Casual
Clothing, has a population of 300,000, including 200,000 migrant
workers. Its 5,000 companies employ migrant workers as their predominant
source of labor. This year, however, the city has been hit by a severe
shortage of laborers. Scarcely one year ago it was a totally different
picture. It was common to see several migrant workers compete for one
job opportunity. Now to recruit enough workers, the personnel department
of many companies have promised to pay a bounty of 100 yuan ($12.1, or
around 12 percent of a laborers monthly wage) to anyone who can poach
staff for them.
According to a report in Xinhua News Agency, since February, many small
and medium-sized enterprises in Fujian Provinces coastal cities, like
Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Putian and Jinjiang, have been facing a similar
shortage of workers. Both skilled and ordinary workers are in great
demand, with a combined shortage of 200,000 for the region. A survey
conducted by the enterprise research agency affiliated to the Fujian
Provincial Bureau of Statistics reveals that since the 2004 Spring
Festival (Chinese New Year), the shortage of workers, especially skilled
ones, has adversely affected the normal operation of enterprises based
in Jinjiang. Only 80 to 85 percent of industrial enterprises and less
than 50 percent of ceramic factories have been operating due to the
labor shortage. Fujian Provinces coastal cities, a gold mine for the
private economy, used to absorb over 1 million migrant workers every
year, 80 percent of whom were from inland provinces.
Since the 2004 Spring Festival, Zhejiang, another coastal province
famous for its thriving private economy, has also been hit by a shortage
of migrant workers. Data shows that this year the number of migrant
workers in the province has experienced a year-on-year decrease of 10 to
20 percent. Demand of migrant laborers in Zhejiang has for the first
time exceeded supply in the last 20 years.
Whats more, the Pearl River Delta, which in the past was inundated with
migrant workers, is also experiencing a severe shortage. According to a
survey, there is a shortfall of 2 million workers in the central cities
on the Pearl River Delta, such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan.
Recruiting new workers has now become the top priority of many local
enterprises.
The prosperity of the private economy in Chinas eastern and southern
coastal cities is for most part attributed to the cheap migrant labor,
and the expansion of the manufacturing-based economy has provided more
job opportunities for millions of surplus rural laborers. Currently,
over one-third of Chinas rural laborers are working in non-agriculture
industries. According to a survey conducted by the Chinese Ministry of
Agriculture, the countrys total number of migrant workers had reached
99 million by the end of 2003. Undoubtedly, rural laborers have become
the main body of manufacturing workers. Since the early 1990s, every
Spring Festival has seen the seasonal flow of migrant workers between
their working cities and their hometowns, which is described as the
tide of migrant workers.
Why a Shortage of Workers?
Since migrant workers have become an indispensable part of Chinese
cities, what has caused the current shortage of migrant workers in
coastal cities?
First, as major exporters of migrant workers, two central
provincesAnhui and Jiangxiused to export over 90 percent of their
rural laborers during the peak of the migrant worker tide. But the
importance the Chinese Government now attaches to issues concerning the
countryside, agriculture and farmers, plus the rise in the price of
agricultural products from September 2003 have made farmers think twice
before they go to work in cities. As a result, a large number of rural
laborers have changed their plans, with many taking back their
contracted land (in China, every farmer receives a piece of contracted
land to farm. When farmers do not want to farm their land, they usually
transfer the land to other farmers), or swapping their single crop rice
for double crop rice. This is a major reason behind the dwindling of
migrant workers moving to cities after the 2004 Spring Festival.
Second, an unfavorable ratio between salary and expense is another
reason for the drop in migrant workers. With economic development, the
cost of living in coastal cities has kept going up, but migrant workers
continue to earn relatively low wages. According to rough estimation,
the monthly expense
