In 2003, less than 60 percent of university graduates found jobs
in some parts of the Yangtze River Delta. However, things were very
different for their blue-collar counterparts coming out of the
vocational schools.
Over 95 percent of the students who graduated from the
vocational schools found employment. What's more, in Suzhou City,
average salaries for senior fitters are much higher than those of
master's graduates.
One company actually offered an annual salary of 300,000 yuan
(US$36,200) to get a senior moulder. This was at a Technical Talent
Fair, held in Fenghua City, Zhejiang Province. The shortage of
skilled workers has become quite a bottleneck holding up industrial
development on the Yangtze River Delta.
Employment rates among university graduates were running at just
60 percent in Nanjing City last year. However about 99 percent of
students from the Nanjing Communications Vocational School found
jobs. Almost half of the students who will graduate next year are
already fixed up with jobs with companies eager to use their
skills. Sources at the school say the students can go on to earn
1,500 yuan per month (US$180) in a regular automobile repair shop,
or double that in a Sino-foreign joint venture.
Over 10,000 skilled workers are urgently needed in the 700
foreign and Sino-foreign joint ventures in the industrial center of
Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. At least 25,000 skilled workers are
needed every year in the Suzhou Hi-tech Industrial Development
Zone. Some companies in Kunshan City have offered as much as
280,000 yuan a year (US$33,800) to recruit new "senior
fitters".
Though 10 enterprises were offering salaries as high as 6,000
yuan (US$720) per month to skilled workers in Hangzhou City last
year, they still couldn't get properly qualified staff with the
skills they required. In today's labor market, the services of
skilled workers are selling like hot cakes down on the Yangtze
River Delta.
For example, over 100,000 new skilled workers are needed every
year in Nanjing City, but only 10,000 are trained in that city.
Among the city's pool of 562,000 skilled workers only 7 percent are
categorized as "senior workers" and 1 percent as "technicians".
Meanwhile the city has only 99 "senior technicians" and most of
these have already retired.
Shanghai is famous for its equipment manufacturing industry but
even here the ratio of "senior technicians" is only 6.2 percent.
This does not compare favorably with the corresponding ratio in
developed countries, where it is in the range of 30-40 percent.
China has set up 3,790 vocational schools to train its much
needed technical talents. However, these attract fewer applicants
than the universities. Falling rolls have led some vocational
schools to move into different roles and some have even closed
down.
In Suzhou City, 72 year-old Zhang Xuping is an expert on the
arrow shaft loom. He said, "It takes four or five years, or perhaps
even longer, to master the necessary techniques. Nowadays few
people are prepared to devote such a long time to training." He is
saddened that there is no one for him to pass his skills on to.
Why is China so short of skilled workers while so many academic
graduates are experiencing difficulties in finding and keeping
their jobs?
The underlying reason is that the whole of society seems to be
blindly aiming for higher education degrees. Just as they did in
feudal times, many people in China today look down on those who
work with their hands as well as their minds. And just like parents
in other parts of the world, most Chinese parents hope their
children will be able to go on to university and benefit from a
higher education. There is a common misconception that it's
difficult to find a good job without an academic degree.
Meanwhile many enterprises are failing to recognize the
importance of training their own skilled workforce. Then they find
themselves having to offer inflated salaries to employ essential
skilled workers such as "senior fitters" when with better foresight
they might have trained their own.
With China facing shortages of homegrown skilled workers, many
are being recruited from overseas with high salaries. For example,
a privately run enterprise in Zhenjiang City employed a blue collar
worker from Italy at 800,000 yuan (US$98,600) a year. A human
resources company recruited a "senior technician" from Japan to
work in Shanghai at 700,000 yuan (US$84,500) per year. And there
are other costs involved. One enterprise in Jiangsu Province found
itself with a bill for 1 million yuan (US$120,000) for insuring its
Indian workers.
China's shortage of skilled workers will hamper its development
as one of the world's manufacturing giants. Experts are pointing
out that the long-term answer does not lie in recruiting
blue-collar workers from overseas to fill the gaps. They say it is
crucial that the nation should train its own skilled labor
force.
(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan, June 21, 2004)