City not affected by manpower shortage

The annual labor shortage that usually takes place after the Spring Festival holiday has not affected Shanghai this year, according to the latest survey conducted by the Shanghai Migrant Workers Leading Group Office.

The majority of migrant workers return to their hometowns before the Spring Festival and a significant percentage of them do not usually return till two weeks after when travel fares are cheaper. As many of these workers are not bound by job agreements or have contracts that expire before the Chinese New Year, they often choose to find more lucrative jobs elsewhere or stay in their hometown instead of returning to their job positions.

This hence poses a manpower issue for most companies as they usually reopen for business a week earlier.

Based on the survey findings, 80 percent of employees in Shanghai returned to their jobs following the holiday period this year.

Companies have also expressed that they are not overly concerned with job positions that have yet to be filled, noting that the job market in Shanghai is still vibrant.

One of the sectors that is affected the worst by the usual labor shortage is courier services. To make matters worse, there is usually a huge backlog of orders to be delivered after courier companies resume business following the holidays. This year, however, most of the companies are not fretting over manpower.

According to Shanghai YTO Express, which has more than 100 branches in the city, 95 percent of their delivery staff have returned to their jobs, which means that customers do not need to worry about further delays to their orders.

Yunda Express said that while they too are faced with a backlog, most of the orders would be delivered within a week as the majority of their couriers have returned to work as well.

Over at Shanghai Dian Na Decoration Project Co Ltd, the company's deputy general manager Wang Yongan said that they are not experiencing a manpower shortage, with one of the main reasons being that the incomes of decoration workers, including masons, plumbers, electricians and painters, have been rising in the past few years.

"For most of the decoration workers, their average daily salary in Shanghai is now at least 300 yuan ($43). Most of them can't find a job in their hometowns that pay as much as this," he said.

The domestic services sector has also been largely unaffected this year. Zhang Yumei, a senior consultant at Shanghai Xin Hu Family Service Co Ltd, also said that up to 90 percent of their 500 maids and family drivers have returned to the city.

"Most of the maids returned to their posts before the Lantern Festival at the latest. Therefore, it is not hard for families to find a maid right now. The experienced ones, especially professional maternity matrons, are always in high demand," she said.

According to Zhao Jiande, deputy director of Shanghai Migrant Workers Leading Group Office, there are 6.67 million migrant workers in Shanghai, most of whom are working in the architecture, manufacturing and service industries. He added that this figure has remained almost unchanged over the past few years.

Among these workers, about 5.32 million of them have landed full-time jobs in companies while the rest of them have flexible working schedules. The average monthly salary of Shanghai's migrant workers this year is 3,700 yuan.

More and more young migrant workers are now working in Shanghai, as evidenced by the average age of workers which dropped from 40 five years ago to the current 32. Nearly 60 percent of the migrant workers today have obtained at least a preliminary-level technical title.

"The number of migrant workers will increase and decrease according to the city's economic development, but the range will always be within 5 percent. Therefore, we can say that Shanghai has always been the city where migrant workers come to realize their dreams," said Zhao.

shijing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 02/24/2017 page7)