Letters and Blogs

Dearth of migrant workers may be a good thing

In the beginning of this year, around 20 million migrant workers from rural China were out of work and had to return to their homes. Now the tide seems to have been reversed. It is reported that Zhejiang and Guangdong, two provinces that are the manufacturing hubs of China, face increasing shortage of labor. Even in Sichuan province of Southwest China, famous for its labor emigration in the past, recruiters face difficulty in hiring workers. The wages of construction workers, too, have surged.

The shortage of migrant workers is an auspicious sign for the Chinese economy. First, it indicates that the income of migrant workers from rural areas have risen. For many years, wages in the manufacturing sector in the eastern coastal areas barely changed. Now the workers have started moving to other regions and sectors where wages are higher, making employers to raise wages.