China's migrant workers called upon to shore up labor shortages
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-02-13 16:57

Twenty-three Chinese cities are planning to recruit migrant workers in a large-scale recruitment drive following the Spring Festival.

Eighty percent of 2,000 surveyed companies in the cities, including Beijing and Tianjin, will recruit migrant workers in the next two months, according to Ministry of Labor and Social Security statistics.

Migrant workers are badly needed in China's Pearl River Delta Region for its booming manufacturing and tertiary industry.

Over 100,000 positions are vacant in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong province, sources with the Guangzhou Labor Market Service Center said.

In the same province, the municipal government of Shenzhen also said 400,000 workers are needed after the Spring Festival.

Some overseas-funded companies even rent buses to go to the rural areas of provinces like Sichuan and Hunan to recruit migrant workers. A Hong Kong hardware businessman said his colleagues have already been to Sichuan and Hunan.

The overseas-funded company of Dong Guan, in South China's Guangdong province, raised the monthly salary to 900 yuan (US$112.5) for average workers and 1,300 yuan for experienced migrant workers.

For average workers, the typical monthly salary is 800 yuan and for experienced workers, the highest monthly salary is 2,000 yuan, according to the Guangzhou Labor Market Service Center.