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Coronavirus: more than two thirds of China’s migrant labourers not yet back at work
- Less than one third of China’s 291 million migrant workers have returned to their jobs because of the coronavirus outbreak, the transport ministry says
- The delay could seriously disrupt China’s manufacturing and services sectors, which do not have the luxury of working from home
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China is still weeks away from getting its economy back up to speed as most of the country’s migrant labourers have not yet returned to work because of the coronavirus outbreak.
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Less than one third of China’s 291 million migrant workers – citizens with household registration in rural areas but who work in towns and cities – had returned from their hometowns by last Friday, Liu Xiaoming, a vice-transport minister, said at the weekend.
The transport ministry said passenger traffic on China’s roads, railways and aeroplanes was 12 million people on Sunday, about 20 per cent of the volume on the same day a year earlier.
As the new coronavirus has spread from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, authorities across the country have imposed sweeping transport restrictions, curbed shop hours and locked down cities home to tens of millions of people.
Most provinces returned to work last week after an extended Lunar New Year, but a significant portion of the workforce is still in limbo amid factory shutdowns and quarantine measures imposed on businesses.
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