Shortage Of Migrant Workers In Shoe Factories Challenges China'S Labor Market

Providing free accommodation is the "old imperial calendar" and enjoying paid annual leave as a "new selling point".

The new employees will receive 100 yuan "welcome Award" when they arrive at the post.

In order to recruit migrant workers, enterprises have launched all kinds of measures to attract them, but why are many migrant workers still ungrateful?

In February 16th, the first spring breeze action 2008 special recruitment meeting was held in Guangzhou.

In order to get satisfied employees, the average starting salary of enterprises has increased by 13% to 1160 yuan, which has increased by 30% even for individual enterprises.

However, there is still no law to ask, 7000 vacancies, more than 4000 job seekers.

The shortage of migrant workers has become the focus of the major media in the Pearl River Delta for a long time. Even if the salaries are raised substantially, people will not be able to recruit people. This information has been revealed to business owners: the initiative of migrant workers is no longer in the hands of business owners.

Insiders pointed out that the phenomenon of "shortage of migrant workers" is actually the result of the concentrated exposure of potential labor and capital problems.

In addition, the pformation of the foreign trade environment and the implementation of the national macro-control policies and other factors led to the great pfer of the Pearl River delta industry, which is quietly changing the employment market in the Pearl River Delta through the market pmission mechanism.

10 years ago, the Pearl River Delta did not raise wages 20 years ago, to work in Guangzhou can get a salary of five hundred or six hundred yuan, which was an attractive remuneration at that time.

But an old employee of Dongguan shoe industry said that in 1996, the wages of front-line workers in the factory were about 1000 yuan, and 10 years later, the figure remained unchanged.

With the economic development, the Pearl River Delta's advantages were no longer obvious.

The factories run by some provincial capitals in the inland area also earn basically 600 to 800 yuan.

According to the reporter, in construction enterprises, Guangzhou's monthly salary is 1658 yuan, while the construction enterprises in Chaohu, Anhui Province, even if they work for the bricklayer, the monthly salary of the workers is above 2000 yuan.

Some people pointed out sharply: "the shortage of migrant workers in Guangdong every year is worse than elsewhere, because some bosses are too stingy!"

The wage level has become the most important criterion for migrant workers to decide whether to stay or stay. Most migrant workers hold such mentality.

However, not only the salary problem, but also the basic welfare guarantee for employees, such as the endowment insurance and medical insurance that the workers are most short of, is also a problem in many enterprises in the Pearl River Delta region.

"In recent years, the shortage of migrant workers has heard much. At present, the new labor contract law is being talked about. It is a problem for workers to be difficult to recruit, and how to retain people is a big problem.

Nowadays, there are few employees who have "hardware" for their employees. Of course, employees do not have basic guarantees.

Li Yiping, Professor of economics at Renmin University, analyzes the employment situation of many labor-intensive enterprises.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that low wages or even wages are in arrears and poor working conditions, especially in some places, such as frequent industrial accidents, lack of benefits and social security benefits.

However, these problems actually existed for a long time.

In fact, the most direct factor is the rise in prices and the increase in the cost of living for migrant workers.

Since last year, consumer prices rose by 6.6% over the same period last year, of which food prices rose by 13.5%.

As we all know, food expenses account for a large proportion in the living expenses of migrant workers.

In many places, the price of rice has almost doubled, and the cost of living for migrant workers is likely to rise by tens of dollars.

In some enterprises, the income of workers working in normal time can only maintain their living expenses, but to keep the money, they can only work overtime.

Therefore, it can be said that the rise in prices and living expenses has led to the low income of migrant workers and a series of other related problems.

That is to say, the income they earn from their jobs almost all consume at the same time.

Industrial pfer has a deep impact. In fact, although the salary is not high in the Pearl River Delta region, it is a long-term problem. However, not all enterprises can attract employees through salary increase. The rise of production factors such as raw materials and energy prices has brought pressure on SMEs.

Ding Li, director of the scientific research division of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, who has been working on Guangdong's regional economic research, believes that this is closely related to the economic and social pformation in the Pearl River Delta.

According to authoritative statistics, there were thousands of factories closed down and moved out in the Pearl River Delta last year, about 25% of them built factories in Southeast Asia, about 50% of them built factories in inland provinces, and about 25% of enterprises were still on the sidelines.

Ding Li said that the continuous pformation of industrial pformation forced some Pearl River Delta enterprises to pfer or collapse, and will have an impact on the demand for labor.

Peng Peng, director of the scientific research division of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, said that the implementation of the national macroeconomic regulation and control policy, the implementation of the labor contract law and the deepening of Guangdong's industrial pfer are affecting the new employment situation through a series of market pmission mechanisms.

"There are also factories in Changsha. I go there and work close to home. When I am busy farming, I can also take care of the crops in the fields, and there is no less money."

Wang Baoguo, a 50 year old farmer in Xiangtan, and his wife worked in a garment factory in Foshan and Dongguan 12 years ago. 3 years ago, he returned to Changsha and Ningxiang to do the same job. His wife worked in the old household farm and took care of the elderly.

Wang Baoguo's son continued to work in a shoe factory in Humen, Guangdong. The monthly income last year was around 1200 yuan.

Wang Baoguo said his son also wanted to move in this year because he heard that a farmer working in Jiangsu could earn 1600 yuan a month.

The labor force is no longer unlimited supply. In fact, China has been in the process of two yuan economic development for a long time. Its typical feature is the unlimited supply of labor.

The oversupply of labor force objectively leads to a long-term downturn in labor prices.

However, the characteristics of unlimited supply of Chinese labor are disappearing.

It was in 2004 that the government began to concentrate on a large scale of arrears. In the past, some of the industrial cities of the Pearl River Delta, which had been overcrowded, were the first to cry out "the shortage of migrant workers" for the first time.

Later, due to the upgrading of the Pearl River Delta region and the rapid development of the mainland's economy, the shortage of migrant workers began to spread to the mainland.

With the introduction of the problem of "shortage of migrant workers", the days when the migrant workers are regarded as cattle and horses and become business owners are gone forever.

In addition, the "labor shortage" reflects the subtle changes in the supply and demand relationship of the labor market, and provides basic economic motivation for solving such problems as wage arrears.

From the supplier side, the gap between the comparative benefits of home farming and migrant workers is shrinking due to the continuous implementation of the policy of "giving more, taking less and letting go".

Meanwhile, over the past 30 years, the implementation of family planning policy has reduced the growth of new rural population.

Two factors superimposed, the total number of migrant workers is decreasing.

From the demand side, the rapid development of the inland economy in recent years has made the "interception" function of migrant workers' "southeast peacock fly" more and more obvious.

In the past, thousands of peasants who had to trek thousands of miles to find jobs found jobs in provincial towns, counties and even their homes.

The demand for migrant workers in the coastal and inland areas is beginning to form a competitive situation.

The relationship between supply and demand determines the price, and the change has gradually increased the voice of migrant workers in the labor relations and wage negotiations. "Migrant workers who wash their feet into cities" have the right to "do not stay here, stay at home" and vote with feet.

China's labor market has been challenged by the "shortage of migrant workers" which began in 2004. It has spread from coastal areas to the central region in recent years, and even to the labor force exporting provinces.

Although the labor market in China is still unable to change the basic pattern of oversupply and insufficient employment in the short term, structural unemployment with the main feature of College Students' employment still exists.

But in general, the trend of urban unemployment rate and labor participation rate has been curbed, and the unemployment rate in 2007 shows a downward trend compared with the previous years.

By 2007, the trend of labor supply tightening was even more significant.

From the perspective of the salary trend of migrant workers, the wage income of low end labor force has already entered the rising channel, and the shortage of a large number of high-end technology positions has promoted the corresponding pay level to gradually become international.

For enterprises, the era of continuously gaining labor force from the market without improving labor treatment is becoming the past.

The salary trend survey released in 2007 and 2008 by ECA international, a global consultancy firm, released in January 17th this year, shows that mainland China's salary increase will remain at around 8%.

In the future, enterprises will need more competition in the market to get the needed human resources, the strengthening of incentive measures, the improvement of salary and welfare, and the improvement of working conditions will become a long-term trend.

Thus, the real challenge for China's labor market in the future will be how to pform quantity advantage into quality advantage.