Migrant worker shortage intensifies

Migrant workers from Hebei Province [Xinhua]

Although China used to possess a sufficient labor force, the shrinking of its working-age population has begun to cast a shadow upon the nation's economy in recent years.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that in 2012, the number of working-age people in China decreased by 3.45 million to 937 million. According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the number will drop by some 8 million every year between 2020 and 2030; after 2030, it will lose 8.3 million each year.

The Chinese Business Daily Economic Information reported recently that labor shortage exists not only in estern China, but also in central and western China. Young adults who stay behind in the rural areas of Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan and Guizhou Provinces are decreasing in number. The labor tug of war is intensifying across the country, causing migrant worker incomes to continually rise.

Supply and demand inverted

The labor shortage in rural areas marks the approach of the "Lewis turning point." At present, the country's labor shortage has extended from its east coast to central and western areas, inverting the traditional relationship between employer and employee.

"In previous years, migrant workers were easily employed. Nowadays, the available rural labor force is declining," said Cao Qiaoqiao, HR manager of a Wenzhou company in Zhejiang Province.

According to statistics from the Zhejiang provincial department of human resources and social security, more than 25 percent of local companies have to face the increasing unemployment crisis caused by the labor shortage.

"When we organized job fair 10 years ago, migrant workers were eager to attend; nowadays, even if you pay them, they may not show up," said a human resources and social security official in Linquan County, northwestern Anhui Province.

In the past four years, the Linquan government has organized a number of job fairs, each of which provided 4,000 to 5,000 jobs. However, it is getting more and more difficult for companies to find workers in counties like that.

In order to gain local government's cooperation, many companies in Zhejiang and other coastal cities even throw in some investment bait. One human resources and social security official in Zunyi County of Guizhou Province gave an example. In 2012, a Zhejiang textile company promised to invest 8 billion yuan in the county, while the local government would have to help hire 5,000 workers in return. However, since only 200 workers had been recruited, the committed investment became a bubble.