Coronavirus: China’s manufacturing heartland almost back to normal as over 6 million workers return

Local governments in Guangdong are chartering trains and planes, as well as offering financial incentives, to help employees return to work after the extended holiday

Small and medium-sized businesses, though, are still struggling to solve their labour problems as the support is focused on larger companies or state-owned enterprises

Reading Time:2 minutes

The provincial Human Resources and Social Security Department of Guangdong said over 6.08 million migrant workers had returned to work, although efforts have largely been focused on larger companies, with smaller firms continuing to struggle. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 1:16pm, 4 Mar 2020Updated: 2:16pm, 16 Mar 2020

A concentrated effort, which includes chartered trains and flights as well as cash bonuses for workers, for factories in China to resume normal operations after the coronavirus slowdown is producing results with over 90 per cent of firms in the Guangdong province having resumed operations as of Monday, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The Human Resources and Social Security Department of Guangdong said over 6.08 million migrant workers had returned to work, which represents around a third of the overall migrant worker population in the province, although efforts have largely been focused on larger companies, with smaller firms continuing to struggle.

Most workers had been unable to return to work up until last week because of travel restrictions or new health requirements imposed on factories to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus, which has infected more than 80,000 people and killed over 2,900 in China.

Over 70 per cent of migrant workers who returned home to Yunfu, a rural city in the mountains of northern Guangdong, on or the Lunar New Year holiday in late January, were unable to leave until February 20 due to the restrictions, the report said.

But now, more than half a million people across the city are now leaving their hometowns and heading back to urban areas, mostly in the Pearl River Delta.

Biel Crystal, a supplier of glass screens for Apple iPhones that normally employees 30,000 workers, had only 5,000 return to its facility in the city of Huizhou, Guangdong province, in the first week after the extended Lunar New Year holiday period ended on February 9.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x