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Back to basics

By Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-14 11:44

Unable to find work for the past three months, Xin Rong has packed her bags and headed home to Chongqing.

Xin, 37, worked in a Macao-backed clothing factory in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, for the past 17 years. Plunging orders bankrupted her company and she was laid off about three months ago.

"My hopes of finding employment in Guangdong have faded, with so many manufacturers going out of business," said the mother of two.

Her factory was just one of the enterprises to have folded from the global economic downturn.

About 9,000 factories could have ceased operations in Guangdong by early spring, resulting in more than 2.7 million jobs lost, figures from the Dongguan Association of Foreign-invested Enterprises showed.

Xin said her monthly wage had dropped from more than 2,500 yuan ($366) to about 1,500 late last year, "but the cost of living has risen dramatically over the past years".

Little was left in her pocket after buying basic necessities, Xin said.

Now back home, Xin hopes to find work in a factory and earn "something like 2,000 yuan a month". She can also spend more time with her two teenage boys now.

"My life would be much better in that case, because it's much cheaper to live in Chongqing," Xin said.

About 100,000 migrant workers have returned home to Chongqing from Guangdong, Chongqing TV station reported yesterday.

"About 20 or 30 workers returning from Guangdong and Zhejiang have visited my office every day, in the past 10 days," Chongqing Xiyanghong Job Agency's Zhou Botong said yesterday.

The automobile industry has been a major hirer, Zhou said, but even that sector has seen shrinking demand for workers.

"Restaurants pay 680 yuan a month for a new dishwasher now. The rate was about 800 yuan last year," he said, adding that jobseekers should not "overestimate" the job market in Chongqing.

Many are still expecting too much from prospective employers, he said.

"Some of them told me they earned about 2,500 yuan a month back in Guangdong. Employers in Chongqing cannot match that," Zhou said.