Source: Global Times
Reuters reported on December 21 that the original title: China's amazing export recovery makes factories compete to recruit workers Boosted by demand from foreign consumers trapped in the epidemic, China's manufacturing industry has recovered rapidly, and the momentum has exceeded expectations. Factories are struggling to fill the labor gap to fulfill the increasing number of orders. China's production of industrial robots, computer equipment and integrated circuits has whizzed back from paralysis during the pandemic, rising 22.2 percent, 10.1 percent and 15.9 percent respectively as of November.
In the past 8 months of the past 9 months, China's export demand has exceeded expectations. This phenomenon stands in stark contrast to the slow recovery of other major industrial countries. In the second and third quarters of this year, China's share of global exports increased from 11% last year to more than 13%, setting a record for the highest quarter. In Jinhua City, home to Yiwu, the export hub of East China, employment in local industrial sectors last month exceeded at any time since the end of 2017.
"In the first half of the year, we reduced the number of workers by 50, but with the surge in orders, we are now unable to increase production due to a lack of manpower," said Deng Jinling, owner of a thermos bottle factory in Yiwu, which exports products to the Middle East, the United States and Europe. Some of the workers she fired have found jobs in their hometowns. As customers followed suit, Deng purchased two automated production lines at the end of last month to improve efficiency, "We never considered doing this before, but this year we are too busy to have any choice." An automated production line is equivalent to 10 workers."
In the third quarter of this year, China's blue-collar job market prosperity index hit a new high. Some factories have raised workers' monthly wages to a maximum of 10,000 yuan.
Liang Xiaoling, general manager of a bicycle company in Guangzhou, said that 2020 has become the best year in a decade for China's bicycle industry as foreign consumers crave more exercise and find ways to avoid taking public transportation. "Our production capacity peaked in September and October," he said, adding that orders are now lined up for 2022. His factory now employs more than 100 more temporary workers.
Zhang Qinming, the owner of a company that makes loudspeakers for the European and American markets, said that product demand increased by 25% compared with previous years. He not only pays overtime for regular employees, but also hires temporary workers for an hourly wage of 18 to 19 yuan, and rents other factories to share production tasks.
Experts say the astonishing resilience of China's export sector has reduced the need for the country to reinvigorate its economy through a massive stimulus package. By the end of last month, China had completed 122% of the target task of creating new urban jobs in cities and towns this year. (By Gabriel Kraussley et al., translated by Cui Xiaodong)