Shenzhen: Desperate for Labor(1)

From Nation, page 12, issue 337, Oct 15, 2007
Translated by Zuo Maohong
Original article: [Chinese]

The Pearl River Delta is struggling with a labor shortage that is only becoming more and more severe.

Driving past the myriad of industrial parks that populate the Longgang strip of the Shenzhen-Shantou Highway, one can't help but notice banners with phrases like "many workers wanted" flashing by.

"Newspapers exposed a labor shortage [in Shenzhen] of 100,000 workers in the spring of 2004, but the government refuted it," says Liu Hongqiang, a Hong Kong businessman. "Then in 2005, reports put the shortage at 300,000, and again the government dismissed it as a structural problem. Meanwhile, my company is short of all types of labor, from entry-level up to management"

Since starting his business in Shenzhen a decade ago, Liu now owns two electronic components factories in Longgang. Three years ago, crowds used to gather at the factories' gates every day, hoping to get a job with a humble wage. But today the factories can't recruit enough workers even though wages have doubled. Thus, many positions go unfilled.

The Government Responds

According to a report published by the Shenzhen government, labor demands for the second quarter of 2007 increased more than 13 percent, with 470,000 positions unfilled.

To counter this, one official from a labor department in Shenzhen tells us that that the government is working out a platform whereby governments of major sources of outbound rural workers can sign a long-term labor supply agreement with Shenzhen.

Recently, the labor departments of 14 major sources of outbound rural workers—including Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Chongqing, have been invited to the "Golden Road Project" Regional Labor Service Cooperation Expo and Technical Talent Job Fair in Shenzhen, where altogether 2,300 technical professionals and 80,000 unskilled workers were recruited.