In China’s most innovative and exuberant city, where even a drab apartment can sell for 65,000 yuan (HK$77,000) per square metre, jobs at Foxconn Technology Group that offer salaries from 2,120 yuan a month should be a hard sell.
But for the millions of migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta who are bearing the brunt of China’s economic slowdown, an entry-level manual labour position at Terry Guo’s compound in Longhua of Shenzhen, once regarded as a last resort, seem suddenly to be in demand.
“My current employer plans to relocate to Jiangxi by 2017 to cut costs, so I am making plans,” said Xiao Guofei, one of at least a dozen young migrant job-seekers who were reading recruitment posters outside Foxconn’s gate as they waited to be interviewed.
“I am not sure if I am still young enough to get into Foxconn, but I will have a try,” said Xiao, who is in his early 30s and was the oldest of those in the queue.
For Wang Tian, a 23-year-old from Jiangxi, age was not the problem. “The salary at Foxconn is not good – a 2,100 yuan starting salary, when you deduct 300 yuan as social security, you have 1,800 yuan left – what you can do with 1,800 yuan in Shenzhen?
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“But at least it provides a free dormitory, and the boss will not run away,” said Wang, who recently left his job in a factory 20km away, after his supervisors refused to give him a pay rise as promised.