The Financial Times reported yesterday the Chinese leadership sees its stimulus package creating new jobs. Though 41 million jobs were lost due to the global economic downturn, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, some 23 million are still looking for work.

The stimulus package and associated big-bank loans went to infrastructure projects and the asset speculation in the stock and real estate markets. So, at least ditch diggers and concrete pourers are for the forseeable future safe in their jobs. However, export markets are still way down, as noted by the retail numbers in western countries and container traffic around the world.

Which made the following passage unusual:

The news about the rebound in new jobs follows a number of anecdotal reports in recent weeks that factories in China’s main export-producing regions, such as Guangdong in the south and Zhejiang in the east, are finding it hard to recruit workers.

Any of the factories that were left standing after the shakeout of 2008 would be struggling to find workers because:

• many factories have moved a bit further inland, to Anhui, Jiangxi and Guangxi;
• workers are finding work in the factories inland;
• or workers are “doing their own thing” in their more remote hometowns, in the interior, where the stimulus package has been predominantly targetted.
• and/or the Hong Kong model of paying workers a pittance for their labor is undergoing a severe trial.

Looks like the good ole’ days of really cheap labor are gone.