Hong Kong factory owners on the mainland say they are desperate for migrant workers as millions so far have yet to return following the Lunar New Year break.
Labour shortages in the Pearl River Delta were already serious, but now about half of the about six million migrant workers who headed home before the New Year failed to show up on Monday, the end of the week-long holiday, according to factory owners.
The supply crunch has forced them to offer higher salaries, better working and living conditions and more promising career prospects. This has increased their costs at a time when prices of raw materials such as plastics, paper and copper have risen as the economy improves, they say.
Yeung Chi-kong, a vice-chairman of 50-year-old toymaker Bluebox Holdings, said he had to offer a monthly pay of 1,800 yuan (HK$2,047) to entice migrant workers to the firm's factory in Dongguan.
The city's minimum monthly salary has just been increased to 900 yuan from 770 yuan. Still, few have been interested so far, Yeung said.
'This is a very big problem for the industry,' he said. 'The sentiment of the market has improved, order volumes are bigger, but we don't have enough workers.'