Economy

Markets

Industries

Insights

Reports

Events

Workforce shrinks as workers go back home

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-30 07:46

The labor force in the southern city of Dongguan - one of China's biggest manufacturing bases - shrank 10 percent in the first half of 2009 compared to the same period last year as the global financial crisis slammed the export market, the city's mayor said yesterday.

Economic growth in Dongguan in Guangdong province has averaged a booming 18 percent each year for the past three decades, but the city's economy only expanded by 0.6 percent in the first half of 2009, Mayor Li Yuquan said in a briefing with foreign reporters.

Related readings:  Hon Hai boosts mainland workforce by 5% despite global downturn  Mayor touts skilled workforce during Beijing visit   $4b boon to aid rural workforce  China largest refiner to cut 5% of workforce

Li said the city's goal this year is to achieve 10 percent economic growth, but it will be difficult to hit that target. "We are really facing great pressure," he said.

The mayor said that the world's economic woes have walloped Dongguan because the city - home to 13,000 foreign-invested companies - is heavily reliant on exports, which dropped by 24 percent in the first half. The city's factories are especially big producers of electronics, footwear, furniture and hardware. The city's population of 11 million includes about 5.7 million workers, Li said.

But Li denied there has been a mass closure of factories. He said that last year, 865 closed or moved out of the city - 70 more than did in 2007.

But in the first half of this year, 342 factories closed or relocated - 78 fewer than the number that stopped operating in the city during the same period in 2008, he said.

Many of the millions of workers who have lost jobs in the cities are believed to have returned to their villages.