SHENZHEN had been facing a labor shortfall of over 250,000 in the wake of the Spring Festival, according to Chinese-language media reports.
Around 70 percent of the city s labor-intensive enterprises suffered a labor shortage, especially in a dire demand for general workers, Southern Metropolis Daily reported Saturday.
The labor shortage was most severe in the manufacturing, catering and retail industries, the paper said.
The city s human resources and social security bureau attributed the labor shortage, which was also seen in other developed cities in eastern China s coastal areas, to factors such as speeding economic recovery, industrial restructuring and increasingly fierce economic competition.
The labor shortage would push local enterprises to accelerate upgrading their production and reduce a heavy reliance on cheap labor, which would weaken their competitiveness, the bureau said.
The bureau said more job opportunities could be created with enterprises industrial transformation and upgrading.
In response to the labor shortage, the city government would step up its efforts to ensure enterprises fulfillment of labor contracts and crack down on offenses like salary default, the paper said.
In addition, the city would strengthen its training of migrant workers, especially those born after the 1990s, to improve their professional skills. The migrant workers were expected to have a fair access to public services and see an improvement of the social security system.
Shenzhen aimed to put 80 percent of its migrant workers under the coverage of endowment insurance and more than 95 percent under the coverage of medical insurance by 2015, the paper said. (Li Hao)
