Moving back home: the upside and the down

While there is no shortage of people available for work in China, their distribution is problematic. "In China, we have 200 million people without jobs, and a huge gap between urban and rural areas," Premier Wen Jiabao said last year at the China Development Forum.

There also are 200 million migrant workers, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. But the once seemingly endless flow of migrant workers to big cities and coastal provinces seems to be dwindling.

Many migrants who returned to their hometowns for Spring Festival decided to stay for reasons that include the lower cost of living, new prospects closer to home and the high pressure of urban life.