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Guangdong, one of the main engines of growth in
the world's seventh largest economy, will be short of one million migrant
laborers this year, state media said, citing a government survey.
More than a quarter of Guangdong's population of 110 million people are
migrants. Most come from rural areas in less well-off interior provinces, such
as Sichuan and Hunan.
Farm incomes, however, have been rising while wages in the region have been flat
for years, prompting migrant workers to seek employment elsewhere.
A sample survey on migrant workers in the province's Pearl River Delta,
conducted by the provincial statistics bureau, showed that the labor shortage
had been been getting worse since it first appeared in 2004, Xinhua News Agency
reported.
Since the first half of last year, about 72.9 percent of companies questioned
had difficulties recruiting workers.
``If a company can provide a monthly salary of 1,000 yuan [HK$943] or above, it
will not have difficulty in recruiting workers,'' the report quoted Fang
Chaogui, director of the provincial labor and social security department, as
saying. The average monthly salary for a migrant worker in Guangdong is
500-1,000 yuan, it said.
The survey polled 329 of the 33,000 private firms or companies with capital from
other places, such as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, that have more than 50
workers in nine cities in the delta, Xinhua said.REUTERS
Opinion: A36
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