Shanghai employers struggle to retain migrant workers

A man stands outside the Shanghai Long-Distance Bus Station with a signboard offering jobs for migrant workers. Many local firms are struggling to recruit and retain skilled employees due to their increased wage demands. (Photo: Shanghai Daily/Dong Jun)

Shanghai companies are struggling to recruit and retain skilled migrant workers due to their rising pay demands.

"It's getting hard to keep people because they want higher and higher salaries," said Gong Yanhua, human resources manager at Power Champ Information Box Manufacture Co.

Speaking yesterday at a jobs fair in Jiading District, Gong said his company, which employs only migrant workers, increases salaries by between 5 and 10 percent a year, but even that is not enough to attract the people it needs.

"Many workers threaten to quit if we don't offer them overtime," Gong said.

Migrant workers rely on overtime payments to boost their pay checks.

The struggle to attract workers is particularly evident in the manufacturing sector. Local companies are feeling the strain during the current hiring season, which begins as workers return to the city after the Spring Festival break.

"The tug of war has been getting harder for both sides," said Chen Guangming, who works for the Yuanbo Labor Agency in Jiading, which is home to a large number of manufacturing firms.

Xu Keyong, a 37-year-old migrant worker from Henan Province who has been living in Shanghai for 12 years, said he went to the fair yesterday to look for a job, but failed to find anything he wanted, despite there being hundreds of positions up for grabs.

Xu, who has seven years' experience as a forklift truck driver, said he was looking for a job that paid more than 4,000 yuan (US$640) a month.

"In recent years it's become increasingly difficult to get by in Jiading on less than 4,000 yuan," he said.

Soaring living costs

Shanghai has long been a dream destination for people from China's rural areas, with the lure of big salaries and employers willing to cover social insurance payments. But the soaring cost of living in recent years is making many of them think twice.

"I planned to stay in Shanghai till I was 45, but with the salaries available I sometimes think that going back to farming is not such a bad idea," Xu said.

While people working in manufacturing with no or few skills are generally paid less than 4,000 yuan a month, skilled technicians can earn up to 6,000 yuan. But such is the competition for better-paid jobs that some agencies hit successful applicants with fees of up to 3,000 yuan, Xu said.

Gong said that in a bid to tackle its recruitment difficulties, his company has since 2012 been looking to "upgrade" its labor force by trying to attract graduates from schools and colleges outside Shanghai. The problem is keeping hold of them, he said.

"Despite us investing time in training, many graduates quit after two or three years for better jobs," Gong said.

Zhang Lehui, human resources manager at Shanghai Extrong Oilfield Technology Co, said recruiting migrant workers, and especially skilled ones, is only going to get more difficult.

"Those of us (manufacturing companies) who stay are more competitive than those who move out of town, so we demand better workers," Zhang said.

Extrong, which has been in business only since last year, pays its technicians 500 to 1,000 yuan a month more than other companies in Jiading, she said.

Agent Chen said the battle for workers is always at its most intense in the first couple of months after the Spring Festival, when job-seekers' hopes of landing a "dream" position are high.

"Once that peak has passed, people who haven't found the perfect job start to realize that they need to find something and so will settle for less," he said.

With the battle for the best jobs and workers now in full swing, an academic said firms need to be more creative.

"Shanghai can no longer afford to sit and wait for migrant workers to knock on its door," said Wu Ruijun, from East China Normal University.

"There should be an online platform where information about jobs in the city can be promoted to migrant workers in different provinces," he said.