WethicA and I all wish you a great year 2011. It is a favorable time for results and potential analysis, and we have decided to think of current changes in China, which 2010 has been a start.
The changes in work in China occur at two level. First the equilibrium between workers and factory is shifting. And the equilibrium between factories and their customers is also shifting. These two changes are actually linked and are coming from new arising goals.
The 2008 depression catch China off guards while it was racing for production. Factories were eager to export more, and workers ready to all sacrifices to send more money back home. This race was so intense that no one thought of acting differently. But the order slump following the financial slump has broken this momentum. Workers discovered their unrelenting work were not insurance of job. Factories discovered their commercial weakness, and many closed. And Chinese government drove both factories and consumer to the local market.
2010 has seen a restarting of Chinese economy which has produced massively again. But for some goods, the production capacity have decreased, and the local market has opened to Chinese factories. Some factories are overloaded and then can select their orders. Many factories have obviously tried to hire more workers to increase their production capacity. But they face a lack of available workers. There are many roots to this lack but they are not all fully quantified ore even not identified. However tha lack of workers is obvious especially in low added value productions. Among the roots we can point out some agricultural inducement, but also the shift of workers to new employment sectors. We will talk again of that.
One of the first consequences of the lack of workers is the workers claim. Workers can easily claim for wages increase or better working conditions as it is easy for them to change from factories. The possibility to ask for improvement is not enough to explain the magnitude of the current change. The labor shortage was as tight in 2008, but it hasn't start major workers' claim. The very workers' expectations are shifting. Usually, most of workers are migrant workers in China. They are coming form inner provinces to work on coastal provinces. They are usually young. Up to now, the only goal was to send enough money back home, and save for their return. But the new migrant workers have seen that job are not granted, and they can't build their life on that only goal. Moreover, we start to see in factories some workers whose parents have been migrant workers themselves. We can notice a change in the goal. The migration is no more only financial. It is also to settle and live in coastal provinces. The job choice and free time expectations are then different. These new migrant workers select other jobs, in services downtown and not only industrial job in industrial area.
We are still in a changing period, and gathered information from audits are sometimes contradicting. We see some factories lacking orders while other lack workers, some workers bonded to their factory and some factories almost emptied from workers. However, we think the above description is an important trend and one should analyze all its consequences.
At last, to finish with an artistic touch for the beginning of the year, I recommend you a documentary film: “last train home” of Lixin Fan, which describe this change in the workers goal. The difference with another documentary “China Blue” done few years earlier is asthonishing, even if both are on working conditions of migrant workers in Guangdong.
May we remind you this place is fully open and WethicA is not responsible of the purpose on the above comments .
However, WethicA may decide to delete any post judge as against the politeness or the ethic.
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