China’s factories are wrestling with labour shortages. Age-old prejudice partly explains why
- The problem can partly be explained by long-held perceptions that blue-collar work is inferior and for people with a poor education
- By 2025, there will be a shortage of nearly 30 million workers in the manufacturing sector, the Ministry of Education estimates
After graduating from a vocational school with a degree in chemical equipment maintenance in 2019, Zhang Cheng joined a natural gas company in northwest China on a salary of 6,000 yuan (US$941) per month, higher than the national average for all graduates that year.
While people around him envied his wage, working on the shop floor was no walk in the park, he said.
“I work in a noisy environment, with a lot of soot and steam and low-oxygen levels, and there are a lot of cryogenic liquids around me, all of which are dangers people often face in this industry,” the 24-year-old said.
Though dirty and dangerous work can be part of the job, the salaries of blue-collar employees in China are not low.
In 2020, migrant workers, who account for the largest share of China’s blue-collar labour pool, earned an average monthly income of 6,214 yuan, an increase of 6.2 per cent over the previous year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. In the first six months of last year, the median per capita disposable income was 14,897 yuan per year, official data showed.