China, long known for its abundant workforce, is beginning to show signs of a shortage of cheap labour, state media said Sunday. Despite official figures indicating about 150 million excess labourers from the countryside are waiting to find jobs in cities, signs have emerged that the labour supply is shrinking, Xinhua news agency said.
In the southern province of Guangdong, the nation's manufacturing capital, there is an annual labour shortfall of about two million workers, Xinhua said.
Factories there are finding it harder to hire migrant workers for low wages.
The labour shortfall is being felt not only in booming cities along the eastern coast but also in inland cities, Xinhua said.
The central province of Henan, the most populous province, has gone all out to develop textile and clothing industries but the workforce in local textile and clothing mills was only 70 percent of what was expected, Xinhua said.
The latest survey from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security showed that in 2006, construction, engineering and machine building enterprises in prosperous coastal areas are willing to pay workers at least 1,000 yuan (about 125 US dollars) per month, said Xinhua.
That is almost equal to the local monthly salary of college graduates.
Just three years ago, these enterprises paid only 600 yuan per month.
Han Jun, director of the Research Center of Rural Economy under the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that 20 percent of rural areas no longer have surplus labour.
Cai Fang, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, acknowledged that labour would be scarce in some areas and particular industries, Xinhua said.
Most migrant workers nonetheless remain poorly paid and lack basic benefits such as public holidays, regular time off and social security insurance.
A recent survey by the Developmental Research Center found 68 percent of the rural migrant workers made monthly salaries of between 300 to 800 yuan.
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