Manufacturing meltdown has HR implications

China, home to 1.41 billion people, the so-called world's factory, and one of the most popular global destinations for foreign direct investment, isn't, however, the place where factory bosses expect to find enough number of young people to work at their workshops. Finding the right talent has become an almost impossible task－and recruiters aren't a happy lot these days.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics in late April, the number of migrant workers in China declined by 5.17 million last year compared to 2019, the first drop since 2008. Migrant workers engaged in the manufacturing sector accounted for 27.3 percent of the total, and their proportion in this category continued to drop.

The key reason is the rise in labor costs. The NBS data showed that in 2020, the average monthly income of migrant workers in the manufacturing sector was 4,096 yuan ($634), an increase of 138 yuan, or 3.5 percent, over the previous year. The average monthly income of migrant workers who went to cities for work was 966 yuan in 2006.