A local Suzhou television news reported highlighted an odd disconnect in the local labor market: local factories are looking to hire, and the unemployed are looking for jobs. The report, in many ways, was more an infomercial for the company, its products, its working conditions and its labor requirements, which is likely how the issue became a news items at all. The news reported went to some labor markets and talked to young people who were looking for jobs. The interviewees were unaware there was a labor shortage. Perhaps these were the unemployable.

The China Economic Review in its November issue highlighted the matter as well, citing that:

“From the factory towns of Dongguan to the trestle tables of Wenzhou, bosses are moaning about labor shortages. Suzhou reported 150,000 – 200,000 job vacancies in September, while vacancies in Shenzhen rose from 23,000 in April to 120,000 in August.”

A combination of late Christmas orders from the West and folks who just don’t want to relocate yet again from their hometowns to factory campuses is creating staffing shortages in China’s export sector. Also, the central government’s infrastructure projects in the interior of the country has seemingly creating enough economic gravity to keep folk’s within the orbits of their hometowns. A hobbled export sector will only make it more difficult for China’s policymakers to keep GDP growth above 8% without additional fiscal stimulus. 9 Nov 2009