Demographic Dividend Continues To Exist: Clothing Industry: The Danger Behind Recruitment Difficulties

It's the end of the year.

Moderator: Hu Jian

Special guest: Ye Liang, Secretary General of Anhui clothing trade association

Wu Jianmin, chairman of Limited by Share Ltd

Han Jiaming, chairman of lucky road Garments Co., Ltd.

Topic 1. In recent years, especially after the international financial crisis, the problem of "recruitment difficulty" in manufacturing industries such as clothing has been highlighted. Why?

Ye Liang: China is a country with a glorious tradition of hard work. But with the development of society, the concept of "the most glorious work" is weakening. Especially after 80 and 90, the enthusiasm for working in enterprises, especially private enterprises is decreasing. They feel that factory workers are inferior to others and unwilling to be in the production line.

In fact, we have been concerned about the difficulty of recruitment since 2007.

In recent years, China's social pattern is changing, and many people's outlook on life and values are changing.

For example, after 60 and 70, we talked about how to save and develop. Now, after 80 and 90, we talk about how to develop in a relaxed environment.

This concept has also led to the younger generation's higher demand for jobs and a relaxed job.

Wu Jianmin: the reason why "recruitment is difficult" is the structural problem of labor supply in the whole society.

After 30 years of development, China's garment industry has formed a stable and programmed recruitment and employment system in the eastern coastal areas.

Now the clothing industry is carrying out industrial pfer, which breaks the original industrial structure and employment balance.

Some people say that the clothing industry is a labor-intensive industry with low added value of products, and industrial pfer should be tilted to cheap labour.

The shift of the eastern garment industry to the central and western regions may lead to the phenomenon of "both ends lack of people".

The eastern imbalance has not yet been established in the western system, which has led to the difficulty of recruiting workers.

There are other reasons.

For example, in the process of urbanization, the State encourages the development of the service industry, giving birth to many other categories, such as catering, home economics and so on. This requires a lot of manpower, thus disrupting the balance of the manufacturing industry in terms of manpower.

Coupled with the change in the concept of employment among young people, they do not want to spend their youth on the production line and prefer the free flowing service industry.

Han Jiaming: there is a phenomenon of shifting in China's migrant workers.

At present, schools such as technical schools and vocational schools for training skilled workers in China are getting fewer and fewer, and the new reserve workers are reluctant to continue to be skilled workers.

Although China is a large manufacturing country with abundant labor resources, it does not attach much importance to the training of skilled workers.

Many people will think that the manufacturing industry is not efficient, and the demand for skills is not high. In addition, young people are more interested in new things such as computers, and have little interest in traditional manufacturing industries. Compared with other industries, the clothing industry is not very attractive, and some people even look down on skilled workers.

On the contrary, some western countries are proud of their handicraft industry. Technicians and apprentices continue to pour into this industry to replenish fresh blood.

In China, more than 20 year old young people are less and less skilled in manufacturing. Especially in the clothing industry, workers are generally aging. Most of the workers are concentrated in the age of 40~50, and in a few years, they are basically unable to do so.

[host's vision]

Whether it is trapped in the impact of the international financial crisis, a large number of migrant workers returning home, or the impact of a series of preferential policies on agriculture, a new phenomenon that we must pay attention to is that many Post-80's and 90's new generation of migrant workers have become the main body of migrant workers in China. But because of their unique personality and high professional expectations, they also prefer to work outside the traditional manufacturing industry.

Topic two, how should enterprises cope with the difficulty of recruiting workers? What kind of workers do they lack now?

Ye Liang: Although Anhui is a large labor force in the central region, it can not deny the objective existence of "recruitment difficulty".

The garment industry must do a good job of digging the advantages of labor resources.

For example, enterprises should increase their internal management, solve their basic life problems, do well in logistics services, and let employees feel at home.

For Anhui, from the trend of 2010, migrant workers still account for the majority.

Anhui used to be known as "tens of millions of migrant workers to the coast", but in recent years, especially after the financial crisis, the number of migrant workers returning home increased.

For example, 10 million of the labour force that had gone out before was roughly 1 million 500 thousand ~200 in the past two years.

In fact, the working environment in Anhui has been as good as that in the coastal areas. For example, clothing enterprises generally have 4 rooms and rooms, and some of them even surpass the coastal areas.

In addition, we must make the next generation set up a correct outlook on life and employment.

Wu Jianmin: Yes, it is very important to change people's career outlook.

At the same time, clothing enterprises should improve their management level and increase the added value of products, so that the treatment of employees will change with the development of society, and they will have advantages over other industries in the issue of "competing for jobs".

The clothing industry is now in the field of production, and has been using a lot of high-tech, such as man-machine integration and other means are used more and more. The equipment level of our country can be comparable with that of foreign countries.

But I think it is impossible to solve the problem of employees through scientific and technological progress.

Only the equipment has been raised, and the cost of manpower management has increased.

Nowadays, the workers in the clothing industry are in short supply.

The classification of clothing industry is very small, for example, pure processing enterprises lack operational workers; R & D enterprises lack sample workers and technicians.

The lack of workers in garment enterprises not only refers to the shortage of first-line production workers, including college students, such as marketing personnel, planners, and procurement personnel.

If any enterprise lacks operation workers simply, it must not be an excellent enterprise.

Han Jiaming: for the shortage of skilled workers, we should pay attention to the training of vocational schools, technical schools, and other specialized technologies, while the majors of clothing colleges are generally designed, which are completely different from technology.

For enterprises, they should strictly abide by the provisions of the labor law, and provide relevant insurance for workers. At the same time, enterprises can introduce some welfare policies, such as the convenience provided by enterprises for certain employees in 3~5, and the planning of providing housing in 5~10, which will help stabilize employees.

As secretary general has just said, enterprises should create a "home" atmosphere for workers, and workers should feel a sense of ownership when they join the company.

In this way, today's workers will bring new workers in, and the next generation will be willing to come in.

Although manufacturing is a technological activity, we can treat workers like artists abroad as artists.

For example, a tailor is a designer abroad, but in China we call him "making clothes".

We should pay more attention to the handicraftsmen.

What is really missing in China is the skilled workers in the production line.

For technology, we should consider it as a discipline rather than simply make it.

In the process of inheritance, it is necessary to form a virtuous circle of "master with disciples, disciples and disciples".

[host's vision]

In fact, in addition to improving workers' working environment, improving their treatment, and changing their career outlook, recruitment initiatives should also be considered.

For example, not long ago, Quanzhou city of Fujian convened the national Inter City Union trade union alliance for employment rights protection. The 30 city trade unions signed 30 labor cooperation agreements with the Quanzhou Federation of trade unions, and 28000 employees were recommended to Quanzhou for employment.

Topic three: according to your understanding, what is the current situation of the front line workers' wages in clothing enterprises? Will the industrial benefits created by the "demographic dividend" continue to exist in the next 5 years or longer?

Ye Liang: as far as I know, at present, the wages of front-line workers in Anhui clothing enterprises are between 1500~2000 yuan.

Compared with the previous two years, it has increased by more than 30%.

And there will be room for further increase in wages in the next few years.

The wages of Anhui workers are slightly lower than that of the coastal areas.

However, from a different perspective, the cost of living of local employees in Anhui will be much lower than that in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, including travel expenses and daily accommodation costs.

I think the demographic dividend will continue to exist for the garment industry in 5~10, because China is still a large population.

Many people say that the cost of labor in Kampuchea, Vietnam and other countries around China is lower than that in China, but the comprehensive quality of their workers is far less than that of China.

Wu Jianmin: the implementation of the labor law, the adjustment of industrial structure and the difficulty of recruiting workers make the wages of the employees in the clothing industry generally rise.

As far as I know, workers in some coastal areas earn 3000 yuan ~4000 yuan per month.

Some time ago, when I went to Haining, Zhejiang, I found that the leather workers earned 5000 yuan a month, or even 8000 yuan. Sometimes they could not recruit people.

China's garment industry will always benefit from the "demographic dividend" big country, and no country can replace it.

Whether you admit it or not, the historical status of China's large population will not change in the short term, and it will also be the best manufacturing power.

Europe and the United States will never be able to come back to make clothes for us. Most of Southeast Asia is smaller than China. India has a large population, but the level of workers is far less than that of China.

All difficulties encountered by the Chinese clothing industry are temporary. After a period of adjustment, they will be restored to balance.

Han Jiaming: at present, the wage level of the front-line production workers in clothing enterprises is around 2000, and the high level can reach more than 3000.

And like we do leather and fur in Haining, Zhejiang, just now Wu Dong also talked about, roughly 5000~8000 yuan, skilled workers can reach 10000 yuan per month.

With the rapid development of the domestic economy, many people are pursuing high yield and high efficiency. Many people always feel that the Chinese clothing industry has "mourning for others".

In fact, there is a process in the development of industry. Let us not blame ourselves.

And the benefits of China's demographic dividend to the garment industry will continue to exist in the next 10 years.

[the host's sight]

Some experts point out that China's aging population will enter the peak period in 2020 ~2040.

This means that perhaps the advantage of China's "demographic dividend" will gradually weaken until the end.

Since the 30 years of reform and opening up, China's labor-intensive industries like clothing have achieved rapid development relying on a large number of cheap labor force.

But in the future, this development model will not continue.

In this way, the conclusion still falls on what we often talk about: speeding up the pformation and upgrading of the industry is most important.