The picture shows a worker in Dongguan checking a mobile phone chip. profile picture. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images)
[The Epoch Times, February 26, 2023]After the traditional Chinese New Year, many factories in mainland China had a sharp drop in orders, and had to cut staff and wages. Thousands of people looted for 300 seats in a factory. Many manufacturing companies are crowded with migrant workers looking for work. The inside story is shocking.
Videos of multiple recruitment sites in mainland China have been circulated on social platforms, drawing widespread attention to the labor market.
The video shows that in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, a material factory recruited 20 employees, and more than 300 people came for interviews in the cold weather and rain. A long queue formed at the factory gate; in Chengdu, Sichuan, a long queue formed at the gate of an electronics factory before dawn. Team, 300 seats attracted thousands of people looting.
In one place in Henan, a labor agency only needed to recruit one employee, but was surrounded by dozens of applicants.
In the labor market, a labor agency in Shenzhen, Guangdong, said with emotion that this year, the ratio of the demand for recruitment in an electronics factory to the number of workers competing for jobs is 1:5, and the supply of jobs exceeds demand…
Is there an oversupply of labor in the labor market, and why are wages falling once more and once more?
According to a report by the Lu media “Jiupai News” on the evening of the 25th, a few days ago, relevant personnel in the labor market in many places, labor intermediaries and migrant workers have reported that since February, wages have indeed fluctuated greatly, and job opportunities have also increased. few. Some recruiters said that due to the concentrated outbreak of job-seeking workers following the Chinese New Year, and the company is still in the recovery stage, the labor supply is oversupplied.
According to the report, it was learned from the labor markets in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhengzhou, Jintan and other places that since February, wages in many places have continued to drop and recruitment positions are scarce. Many factories have closed recruitment channels in advance, and the number of positions being recruited has increased accordingly recruitment requirements.
The demand for job hunting exploded intensively, and the recovery of enterprises might not meet the supply of labor services. Many people who had not gone out to work because of travel restrictions before rushed into the labor market. The backlog of job hunting demand in the past three years has been released intensively, but the labor demand of factories has not kept up. Many factories have lost orders this year. Under the pressure of lost orders and overcapacity, factories will also let regular employees take vacations.
On February 20, Jiupai Finance received a holiday notice from the listed company Dongguan Jierong Technology Co., Ltd. The notice mentioned that due to the impact of the general environment, the company’s order volume has dropped sharply, so some personnel have been arranged to have a holiday from February 21 to May 30, which lasts up to 88 days. If the holiday needs to be extended in the future, it will be notified separately.
Lin Ling, a regular employee of an electronics factory in Shenzhen, said that the factory also issued a two-month vacation notice because of the reduction in orders. This is the first time he has encountered such a situation following working outside for many years. Lin Ling’s son also encountered a similar situation, “It’s really hard to find a job this year.”
“The wages vary from day to day, and get lower every day.” Li Changyi, who works in an electronics factory in Shenzhen, said that the current labor market is experiencing large fluctuations in wages.
Li Changyi came to Shenzhen from his hometown of Guizhou a few years later. At the beginning, the temporary wage offered by the factory was 23 yuan per hour. By February 22, the price had dropped to 17 yuan per hour. , applicants lined up in front of the factory, and the factory “might not have so many people,” Li Changyi said.
A quotation from a labor service company shows that on February 1 this year, the wages of an electronics factory in Dongguan were 23 yuan an hour, and the monthly income was around 6,900 yuan. A week later, his wages dropped to 20 yuan, and his monthly income fell to 6,000 yuan. By mid-February, the factory only recruited regular workers.
A labor agency at the Longhua talent market in Shenzhen said that many factories closed their recruitment channels for temporary workers very early this year and only recruited regular workers. The recruitment of temporary workers at Longhua Foxconn stopped on February 24. This year Foxconn has fewer temporary workers and shortened the recruitment time.
In addition, the factory’s recruitment requirements are also stricter. A labor agency in Jiangsu revealed that due to the “surplus” of migrant workers, the factory is raising the threshold for recruitment. Originally, the recruitment notice stated that most of the male workers were between 18 and 45 years old, and the female workers were between 18 and 40 years old, but the factory was more willing. Young people are required. In some factories, the invisible threshold is 40 years old for male workers and 35 years old for female workers.
Li Changyi said that he did not expect to encounter a drop in labor demand this year. “I knew that I would not come out. I can find a job with similar salary in my hometown. In a big city, the pressure is even greater.”
Editor in charge: Fang Xiao