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[DewDiligence]

This WSJ piece is a good companion read for your post.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703513604575310364275165900.html

›China's Shifting Jobs Keep Migrants Closer to Home

By ANDREW BATSON
JUNE 17, 2010

LANQI VILLAGE, China— Recent wage increases at plants supplying Honda Motor Corp. and other manufacturers in southern China have their roots in rural villages like this one, where those who once joined an army of migrant workers are increasingly defecting to jobs closer to home.

One of them is Zhu Guijun, who from the age of 16 has followed construction jobs across the length and breadth of the nation. But since February, he has been able to support his wife and two children with work nearer his home here in China's northern hills.

The sprawling steel plant down the road is expanding, and needs skilled construction workers such as Mr. Zhu for the project. He says he is making the same 3,000 yuan (about $440) a month that he made as a migrant, and doesn't have to be away from home for long stretches.

"When I'm working away from home, I have a lot more expenses. And here we also have the income from working our land," he says. Now 42 years old, he also is enjoying family life more than he could before: "My kids don't want me to be away so much," Mr. Zhu says. He rides his motorcycle home to the village every night.

The fact that many people like Mr. Zhu no longer need or want to go so far afield to make a living reflects a convergence of two big changes in the nation's economy. A more-even distribution of growth across China, as a boom in construction and infrastructure projects boosts inland provinces, has widened options for workers. At the same time, the work force is starting to get a bit older, and more reluctant to spend so much time far from their homes and families.

That is forcing an adjustment in the parts of China that have long relied on migrant workers for low-cost labor. In 2009, the number of migrant workers going to the Pearl River Delta region—the manufacturing heartland in the southern province of Guangdong—shrank by 22.5%, a government survey says.

To keep attracting workers, local governments are raising minimum wages and pushing companies to improve working conditions and benefits. These measures come as Guangdong has been roiled by disturbances at several manufacturers, including strikes at three Honda-affiliated plants and a spate of suicides at electronics giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Both the Honda suppliers and Hon Hai have increased wages.

"Our rural migrant workers are not the same as they used to be," says Wang Nanjian, the mayor of Jiangmen, a city on the west side of the Pearl River Delta. "They have some room for choice. Conditions at home are pretty good, and there are more employment opportunities inland, so they don't need to come to the coast."

Increasingly, Mr. Wang says his government is working to find workers locally. Training programs and recruitment centers have been set up in villages around Jiangmen. "Companies need a lot of skilled workers, but their demand isn't being completely met," he says.

Rural workers are staying closer to home and traveling shorter distances.A government survey of migrant workers in 2009 found the number working inside their home province increased by 8.2% from the previous year, and now account for 48.8% of the total migrant population.

The rise in local job opportunities reflects how China's growth is no longer as concentrated in the export-driven provinces along the coast, although there still can be big differences in working conditions and wages between high-end factories on the coasts and production centers in poorer areas inland.

The National Labor Committee, a Pittsburgh workers'-rights advocacy group, reported this year on conditions in a high-tech parts supplier in Southern China, describing teenage workers crammed into production lines for "mandatory 15-hour shifts, six or seven days a week." The workers, many of whom are 16 and 17 years old, were paid 65 cents an hour—or 52 cents an hour after deductions for food, the NLC said.

The government for years has funneled more money and public-works projects to the poorer central and western provinces, a move accelerated by the stimulus plan launched to counter the global financial crisis.

China's central and western provinces have grown faster than the coastal provinces over the past couple of years. And the northern province of Hebei, where Lanqi Village is located, has seen a boom: The volume of construction grew 42.2% in 2009, compared with a national average increase of 12.8% and declines in Beijing and Shanghai. That has led to more jobs in steel plants, and in the local iron-ore mines that supply them.

The results are clear to Lang Yong, who keeps tabs on village affairs from his shop selling cigarettes and cold drinks. Out of a population of roughly 1,000 people, there are just seven or eight men who work away from home, he says.

A decade ago, there were more than 100 who had to migrate far away in search of work. "Lots of young people used to go to Beijing or Tianjin to work as drivers, or in construction," he says. Mr. Lang himself spent many years on the road, but at the age of 53 prefers the lighter work of tending his shop. That points to how age is also changing the shape of the migrant work force.

According to village surveys by the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, a majority of rural men aged 20 to 30 work outside their home county. But after age 45, only 14% of men work outside their home county, and just 3% of women.

With China's one-child policy resulting in fewer young people entering the work force, those ranks will increasingly be dominated by older workers reluctant to follow the migrant lifestyle. According to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, people over 45 now account for 32% of the working-age population in China, up from 27% a decade ago.‹