China is facing an acute lack of experienced skilled workers, which threatens to slow down development in both the public and the private sector.

Blue collar workers, who have traditionally fallen below white collar workers on China's social ladder are now commanding higher salaries in a host of cases as companies feel threatened by the shortage of vital skills.

The crisis has affected a natural gas project, part of the West-to-East gas pipeline, has grounded to a halt in the city of Hefei,Anhui province, because of a lack of welders.

In northeast China, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, Shenyang, Liaoning province, has had production delays as it cannot hire operators of digitally-controled machines.

Experienced skilled workers edged into the top 10 most requiredprofessionals with monthly salaries exceeding 5,000 yuan (605 US dollars) in the national capital of Beijing.

According to statistics with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MLSS) available Friday, China now has 140 million urban enterprise employees, of whom approximately 70 million are skilled workers.

However, experienced workers only make up four percent of the national total, lagging far behind the average level of 30 to 40 percent in developed nations.

Some enterprises in Shanghai have invited Japanese skilled workers with annual salaries of up to 700,000 yuan (84,650 US dollars).

Although experienced workers are still cited as "blue collar" workers, they usually master special skills to tackle knotty technological problems. The shortage of such skills can lower quality and competitiveness in an enterprise, and even affect the growth of an entire industry or the national economy.

Only 70 percent of China's industrial products meet required standards, and defective goods have led to annual losses of up to 200 billion yuan (24 billion US dollars).

The lack of skilled workers in the front-line production sector has also impaired the commercial application of scientific technologies.

Only about 15 percent of research findings in China are put into application. Technology contributes to merely 30 percent of the country's economic growth, far lower than the 60 to 80 percentin developed nations.

Officials with the training and employment department of MLSS acknowledged that senior workers, whose status and income are often several grades down from leaders and managers in enterprises,have long been overlooked in the "skills" list in China.

They consider the long tradition of looking down on workers in China is still affecting career choices. Many firms are reluctant to devote funds for training, thinking that it may affect output and reduce short-term profits.

China's vocational education is also suffering setbacks. By theend of 2002, over 600 vocational schools had stopped recruitment due to insufficient student numbers. More than half the students studying at vocational colleges and schools expected to have "noble, decent and lucrative" jobs.

However, experts say businesses will have to pay senior workersmore preferentially.

In the "Price level guidelines for the labor market" released in Shenzhen city, south China's Guangdong province, this year, theearnings of fitters exceeded that of "white collar" jobs that college graduates usually prefer.

A plastic products company in Qingdao city, east China's Shandong province, offered to hire a senior molder with an annual salary of 160,000 yuan (19,350 US dollars), four to five times theaverage rate.

Many labor departments are formulating wage policies favoring high-level technicians, to encourage skills improvement.

Yuan Yue, chairman of the board of Beijing-based Horizon MarketResearch, said that more colleges and universities should shoulderthe task of vocational training, as China, popularly known as a "global factory", is in dire need of trained senior technicians.

"People should learn to show more respect for 'blue collars', since their labor is indispensable to our society," Yuan said.

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