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Migrants in dire straits settle for low pay
By Zhan Yan, Che Xiaohui and Qin Dajun |
March 5, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WANG Zhengxiu is dressed in bright clothes and wears trendy black toenail polish, visible in her open-toed shoes in the warm southern weather. Her flashy dressing seems to belie her anxiety about finding a job in China's slumping economy.
The 38-year-old knows she is competing with millions of other unemployed people across the country. She just quit a low-paying job in a shoe factory because the working conditions were unhealthy.
"We've been looking for work for about 40 days," says Wang, sitting outside a job fair in the industrial city of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. "If we fail to find a job in another week, we will return home to Chongqing. We can't afford to live here without a job."
Her husband, Yu Shichang, 40, is also jobless. "Every place wants experienced hands. Even for planting trees, they need experience. Such simple work can be learned by watching."
The couple has worked for almost 20 years in Guangzhou.
The labor-intensive manufacturing centers in Guangdong Province have suffered because of slumping foreign demand for Chinese goods. Exports dropped 17.5 percent last month from a year earlier.
An estimated 20 million migrant workers, 15 percent of the total migrants, have been left jobless.
Guangdong's labor department has warned that of the 9.7 million migrants expected to flow back into the province after the lunar new year festival, 2 million will have slim hopes of finding work.
Poorly paid jobs do exist. Wang found a job at a shoe factory, but left because the environment was dirty. "If I fell ill, the money I earned would not be enough for treatment."
In the past, Wang earned at least 1,600 yuan (US$234) a month. Now she hopes for at least 1,200 yuan a month.
"Now we can only find jobs paying about 800 to 1,000 yuan a month, almost the minimum to survive in the city," she says
Her husband Yu points to the line of factories on the street: "Most are closed. They will open only when they have orders."
The couple wants their own business.
"We want to raise pigs or chickens at home. When we are in our 50s, no factory will employ us," says Yu. "We want to gain experience first by working on pig or chicken farms. But you need connections now to get jobs on farms. Otherwise, the bosses won't trust you."
Some settle for less.
Zhang Xiongshen, 28, from Jiangxi Province, earned up to 3,000 yuan a month before the financial crisis hit, but he'd be satisfied with a job paying 1,500 yuan.
"I had to lower my expectations, then lower them again. It's important to keep my stomach full first. Then if the situation improves, I can change jobs," Zhang says.
The government provides vocational training for migrant workers to improve their skills. Trade unions are helping more than 10 million migrant workers and providing vocational training.
"The key is to meet the real needs of the migrant workers or market demand," says Wang Chunguang, a researcher on migrant population with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Ding Zhiqiang, deputy director of Guangzhou Stability Office, says the pressure to maintain social order will increase, but the situation is not serious enough to cause mass riots.
"One factor is that the migrant workers still have a plot of land (in their hometowns)to live on," says Chen Shu, secretary general of the Guangzhou Bar Association and deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC).
Another reason to return is that spring is the season to plow. It's time to plant paddy seedlings in March. This is probably their last resort.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
The 38-year-old knows she is competing with millions of other unemployed people across the country. She just quit a low-paying job in a shoe factory because the working conditions were unhealthy.
"We've been looking for work for about 40 days," says Wang, sitting outside a job fair in the industrial city of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. "If we fail to find a job in another week, we will return home to Chongqing. We can't afford to live here without a job."
Her husband, Yu Shichang, 40, is also jobless. "Every place wants experienced hands. Even for planting trees, they need experience. Such simple work can be learned by watching."
The couple has worked for almost 20 years in Guangzhou.
The labor-intensive manufacturing centers in Guangdong Province have suffered because of slumping foreign demand for Chinese goods. Exports dropped 17.5 percent last month from a year earlier.
An estimated 20 million migrant workers, 15 percent of the total migrants, have been left jobless.
Guangdong's labor department has warned that of the 9.7 million migrants expected to flow back into the province after the lunar new year festival, 2 million will have slim hopes of finding work.
Poorly paid jobs do exist. Wang found a job at a shoe factory, but left because the environment was dirty. "If I fell ill, the money I earned would not be enough for treatment."
In the past, Wang earned at least 1,600 yuan (US$234) a month. Now she hopes for at least 1,200 yuan a month.
"Now we can only find jobs paying about 800 to 1,000 yuan a month, almost the minimum to survive in the city," she says
Her husband Yu points to the line of factories on the street: "Most are closed. They will open only when they have orders."
The couple wants their own business.
"We want to raise pigs or chickens at home. When we are in our 50s, no factory will employ us," says Yu. "We want to gain experience first by working on pig or chicken farms. But you need connections now to get jobs on farms. Otherwise, the bosses won't trust you."
Some settle for less.
Zhang Xiongshen, 28, from Jiangxi Province, earned up to 3,000 yuan a month before the financial crisis hit, but he'd be satisfied with a job paying 1,500 yuan.
"I had to lower my expectations, then lower them again. It's important to keep my stomach full first. Then if the situation improves, I can change jobs," Zhang says.
The government provides vocational training for migrant workers to improve their skills. Trade unions are helping more than 10 million migrant workers and providing vocational training.
"The key is to meet the real needs of the migrant workers or market demand," says Wang Chunguang, a researcher on migrant population with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Ding Zhiqiang, deputy director of Guangzhou Stability Office, says the pressure to maintain social order will increase, but the situation is not serious enough to cause mass riots.
"One factor is that the migrant workers still have a plot of land (in their hometowns)to live on," says Chen Shu, secretary general of the Guangzhou Bar Association and deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC).
Another reason to return is that spring is the season to plow. It's time to plant paddy seedlings in March. This is probably their last resort.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
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