Workforce shrinks as workers go back home

DONGGUAN: 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.

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.