A central Chinese company recently released a human resources report, pointing out that there is a labor shortage in China’s manufacturing industry, which is in stark contrast to the “employment difficulties” of college graduates in recent years. The report quoted companies as saying that the reluctance of young people to take up blue-collar jobs is the primary reason for the labor shortage.
The Human Capital Data Center of CIIC, a Chinese central enterprise, recently released a research report on the shortage of first-line blue-collar workers, which analyzed the current situation of labor shortage in China’s manufacturing industry.
This organization surveyed 128 enterprises with different backgrounds, such as state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, foreign investors and Sino-foreign joint ventures. According to the survey results, two-thirds of the enterprises have recently encountered labor shortage, and another 13% of the enterprises said they have labor shortage and labor shortage all year round. Among these enterprises facing labor shortage, more than half of them said they lacked skilled workers and general operators, and another quarter said they lacked all types of blue-collar employees.
Declining status of manufacturing
As China’s national income has grown, its manufacturing sector’s position in economic activity has declined significantly in recent years. According to the World Bank, China’s manufacturing sector has fallen from 32 percent of its economy in 2010 to 26 percent last year. But on the other hand, manufacturing has been a key engine of China’s economic recovery over the past year as the new crown (Chinese Communist Party virus) epidemic has ravaged the world. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s manufacturing value added was 1.2 percentage points higher than the year-on-year GDP growth rate in the second and third quarters of last year, respectively.
Given the seemingly good growth of the manufacturing sector, why do many companies still have labor shortages? He Qinglian, a Chinese economic and social scholar now living in the United States, points out that this is largely related to China’s labor system.
“Because China’s labor demand is very seasonal and by order, and there are usually not many trained skilled workers in the industry, so whenever there are orders that require a large number of workers, of course there are not enough qualified blue-collar workers.”
He Qinglian’s view is just one of the reasons for the labor shortage. According to the report, 90% of the companies participating in the survey believe that this is related to the low willingness of young people to take up front-line blue-collar jobs, and more than 40% of the companies believe that this is related to the recent significant expansion of blue-collar labor demand, poor working conditions of front-line blue-collar workers, and the lack of competitive pay and benefits.
Zeng Xiansheng, general manager of Suzhou Fierce Intelligent Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd, which was established five years ago, was quoted by Chinese media “China Business News” as saying that the low willingness of young people to enter the factory is related to the lack of respect of the whole society for blue-collar workers who “live by skills”, and such discrimination may be more serious among young people. Such discrimination may be more serious among young people.
Difficulties in employment and recruitment coexist
The report quotes the enterprises concerned as saying that the reluctance of young people to take up blue-collar jobs is the primary reason for the labor shortage.
While it is difficult to recruit workers, many young people are facing the harsh reality of difficult employment. China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently said that the number of college graduates in the class of 2021 will reach 9.09 million, and the task of promoting employment will be even more difficult given the uncertainty of “changes in the domestic and international environment and epidemic”. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently released the ranking of the 100 occupations with the most shortage of workers in the fourth quarter of last year, which shows that more than one-third of the occupations with the most shortage of workers belong to manufacturing and related personnel. Among the 34 occupations with increased shortage, nearly half of them are directly related to the manufacturing industry, including “steel reinforcement worker” and “mechanic plier”, etc.
Zou Tao, a financial commentator in Shenzhen, said there is a fundamental contradiction between the record high number of Chinese college graduates and the employment expectations of many of them.
“Now a large number of Chinese college students are having a hard time finding suitable, counterpart jobs after graduation, and there is a disconnect between university education and society; most of them do not want to go into factories and bent on being workers, but there are not that many office jobs, so many of them are not high and not low.”
Back in 2015, the 13th Five-Year Plan proposal adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee clearly stated that China should accelerate the construction of a strong manufacturing country. In the years since then, there have been calls to move from a “manufacturing power” to a “manufacturing power”. But on the other hand, the declining proportion of manufacturing industry, demographic changes, urban and rural industrial transfer and other factors make this long-term strategic goal full of uncertainty.
How to achieve industrial upgrading?
The “high-quality development” of China’s manufacturing industry is still constrained by the system and talents.
Miao Wei, former Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology and Deputy Director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), recently said at the CPPCC National Conference that the “high-quality development” of China’s manufacturing industry is still constrained by the system and talents, and it will take at least 30 years to achieve the goal of “manufacturing power”. It will take at least three decades to achieve the goal of “manufacturing power”. He said that the lack of market-oriented reform is the fundamental problem that hinders the development of China’s manufacturing industry, including the unsound mechanism of fair competition for enterprises, heavy taxes and fees, and insufficient financial support for the manufacturing industry.
Zou Tao analyzed that the brand awareness of Chinese enterprises is generally not strong, because what they think about most all day is usually how to “survive”. Domestic manufacturing industry to achieve transformation and upgrading, not only the enterprise to change, the policy should change.
“The transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry as a whole may be difficult to achieve by the efforts of certain enterprises or private capital alone, which may require more top-level system design by the government, including support for direct financing.”
However, he also pointed out that China’s manufacturing industry has long-term advantages such as a large labor market and relatively perfect industrial chain, and China’s status as the “world factory” is still difficult to be shaken.
Recent Comments