China’s factories struggling to find staff as young migrant workers seek ‘freedom’ in services sector

Factories in China’s manufacturing centres are struggling to find staff as more young migrant workers turn their backs on the production line to find easier jobs with “more freedom” in the growing services sector. One of them, Li Tao, who earns a living as a food courier in Guangzhou, said it was a better option than factory work. “Fewer and fewer young people on the mainland want to work in factories now,” said Li, who is from a rural part of China. “We can earn between 5,000 yuan (US$745) and 7,000 yuan (US$1,043) a month as couriers but we have more freedom than if we were working as a security guard or in a factory.” The courier business is a popular choice, and across China, volume increased by about 24 per cent in 2018 from a year earlier to more than 50 billion deliveries. The business also provides a more flexible workday that appeals to younger workers. “We can play online games and chat during our break – that’s impossible for workers at factories, which are usually located in industrial parks,” Li said. “Many people who are now working as couriers once worked in factories – including me.” One of the biggest on-demand delivery service providers, Meituan Dianping, had more than 2.7 million people on its books as couriers in 2018, working either full-time or part-time, the company said. That was 22 per cent more than in 2017. A survey of its staff also found that 77 per cent of the food couriers were migrant workers, most of them born after the 1980s, according to the company. Liu Kaiming, head of the Shenzhen-based Institute of Contemporary Observation – which monitors working conditions in hundreds of Chinese contract manufacturers – said the services sector had ballooned since the 2000s and had absorbed a large number of laid-off factory workers. China’s small businesses forced to cut back on staff just to survive as economic mood sours amid trade war He said developments in the trade war between China and the United States would be important in determining the future for manufacturing work, as factories considered moving their operations out of China amid the economic downturn. At present, factory bosses in the Pearl and Yangtze River deltas – the country’s traditional manufacturing heartlands – said they are short of workers but cannot meet their salary expectations. The Labour Department in Dongguan, Guangdong province, said some 800 factories in the southern city expected to be short of about 100,000 staff in the period after the Lunar New Year holiday. Companies and analysts have warned that a shortage of factory workers should not be seen as a sign the economy was improving. In eastern Haining, Zhejiang province, furniture exporter Stone Xie said sofa fabric factories were offering skilled sewers 5,000 yuan (US$745) a month – about 10 per cent more than the going rate last year. “But workers with years of experience want higher pay to work in the textile dyeing factories, like 8,000 yuan (US$1,192) a month, with one day off a week,” Xie said. “It’s too much for more most of the low-tech manufacturers. Many factories in Haining are short of workers now.” Electronic factories in the north of Guangdong province are also short-staffed. Qiu Shilin, who works at a factory in Meizhou, said the company was offering a monthly wage of 4,000 yuan for skilled workers. “We had hoped to recruit 200 people, but we’ve only found one third of that number,” Qiu said. The invisible struggle: how thousands of female migrant workers lose their money and their children every year According to Liang Lu, who runs an association of manufacturers in Dongguan, many companies in the city are looking to replace staff who were laid off last year. “Many factories here are hiring workers, but actually this is a result of the lay-offs late last year, when many small and medium-sized businesses had to reduce their numbers,” Lu said. “Most of the higher paid jobs are casual, not full-time, so the factories won’t have to pay any social security for them.” Even by boosting pay though, manufacturers are finding it difficult to attract workers. Garment factories in the Haizhu district of Guangzhou said they were offering 7,000 yuan a month with free accommodation yet they still could not get enough skilled pattern cutters, according to Southern Metropolis News. The situation has not gone unnoticed by the authorities. In Jiangsu, Guangdong and Zhejiang, authorities have announced plans to hold more than 4,000 recruitment fairs across the three provinces in February and March to try to get more workers into factories.

China’s factories struggling to find staff as young migrant workers seek ‘freedom’ in services sector

Booming courier business is a popular choice, where food deliverers can earn US$750 to US$1,000 a month with companies including Meituan Dianping Garment factories in Guangzhou offering over US$1,000 a month with free accommodation but unable to find enough skilled pattern cutters

Booming courier business is a popular choice, where food deliverers can earn US$750 to US$1,000 a month with companies including Meituan Dianping

Garment factories in Guangzhou offering over US$1,000 a month with free accommodation but unable to find enough skilled pattern cutters