MANPOWER SHORTAGE: Companies post job applications at the gate of a labor market in the city of Yiwu in east China's Zhejiang Province on February 15. Local businesses have been striving to attract more workers after a labor shortage following the Spring Festival holiday (ZHANG JIANCHENG)

A labor shortage in east China's coastal areas has spread to several other provinces, including Anhui, Henan and Gansu provinces following the Spring Festival holiday.

"The labor shortage started earlier this year than any other year, and is expected to last longer," said Chang Mengchen, general manager of the Shanghai-based Tiandu Human Resources Co., which has been in business in the Yangtze River Delta for several years.

The company manages more than 8,000 migrant workers, but 800 of them left the company at the end of last year. Currently, more than 100 of the company's clients need workers.

According to Qiu Yujian, a manager at the Shanghai Xinkunhao professional intermediaries, some 30 companies registered with the company with a combined request for 10,000 workers, but only 3,000 workers came to register.

"Companies need a large amount of workers, especially in the manufacturing industry," said Qiu. "An electronic component factory that requires 5,000 workers, for example, might only recruit 2,000 this year."

The city of Kunshan in east China's Jiangsu Province is home to many export-oriented processing businesses. Due to the fact that much of its labor force is made up of migrant workers from other provinces, the city now faces a serious labor shortage. Compal Electronics Inc., for example, is still 5,000 workers short, according to the company's human resources department.

A survey conducted in the Bao'an District of the city of Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province shows that the area's companies will be about 200,000 workers short this year.

Some provinces known for their large labor pools are also feeling the sting. Statistics from the Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Anhui Province indicate that some 2,300 businesses each lack at least 50 workers on average, with the total worker shortage reached 250,000 by the end of 2010.

"We would be welcomed by banners when we went to secondary vocational schools in Anhui and Henan provinces to recruit workers in recent years," said Chang Mengchen. "But we don't enjoy such preferential treatment anymore."

Similarly, businesses represented at two employment fairs recently held in the counties of Qin'an and Longxi in northwest China's Gansu Province offered a monthly wage of 2,500 yuan ($380) to 3,000 yuan ($456), a significant rise compared to recent years. However, many of these companies still got the cold shoulder at the fairs; some of the businesses couldn't even muster a single hire at the fairs.

Some workers said that they feel encouraged that wages are going up in many provinces. Their expectations for higher wages is partially the result of the country's recent price hike. As workers demand higher salaries and better conditions, the labor shortage may continue to put the country's manufacturing industry on hold.

(Source: Beijing Daily)