There is a growing shortage of skilled workers in today’s China, which has become a sword of Damocles hanging over the head of China’s manufacturing industry.
Every year after the Spring Festival, from Sichuan to Guangdong, from Yunnan to Fujian…the trains for migrant workers, the special planes for returning to work, and the customized special cars are busy.
Picking up old employees and welcoming new employees, for many Chinese manufacturers, recruitment is the top priority after the start of production. In the recruitment process, highly skilled talents are most in short supply.
According to Li Zhong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, China has more than 200 million skilled workers as of now, of which more than 50 million are highly skilled workers. However, China’s skilled workers account for only 26% of the total employed population. From the perspective of overall employment and economic development needs, China’s total number of skilled personnel is still insufficient.
During the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” period, China added more than 10 million highly skilled talents, but highly skilled talents accounted for only 28% of the total number of skilled talents. Compared with developed countries, this data still has a large gap. Especially with the improvement of China’s development quality and efficiency, continuous adjustment of the economic structure, and industrial transformation and upgrading, the demand for highly skilled talents will become even stronger.
At present, the gap of skilled workers is getting bigger and bigger, and it has become a Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of China’s manufacturing industry. Relevant experts believe that, at a higher level, in order to break through this shackle, it is urgent to break the shackles of old concepts, improve the social status of technicians, improve the working environment of technicians, and optimize the channels of promotion for technicians.
Tired, dirty, poor – labels of skilled mechanics in China
Skilled talents are an important part of China’s talent team. Among them, those who have obtained the professional qualifications of senior technicians and technicians and are able to carry out creative work are called highly skilled talents, and they play an important role in industrial transformation and upgrading and the inheritance of technical skills.
Li Zhong said that this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China will work hard in three aspects: enhancing the quality and effectiveness of vocational skills upgrading actions, advancing vocational skills competitions, and developing new occupations. In addition, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China will start the revision of the “Central Code of Occupational Classification of the People’s Republic of China” within this year.
The relevant person in charge of the Department of Vocational Ability of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that to accelerate the transformation of economic development and implement the “Made in China 2025” plan, “there is an urgent need for a large number of skilled personnel who can adapt to technological progress, changes in production methods and the requirements of social public services.”
As soon as the first National Skills Competition was held in Guangzhou, China, on December 10, 2020, many Chinese manufacturers immediately offered an offer to Liu Siyu, the champion of Internet of Things technology. Finally, Newland Technology Group Co., Ltd. stood out and signed Liu Siyu with an annual salary of one million yuan.
“Our school’s 2021 graduates have already determined their employment destinations, and they will be able to become regulars as soon as they graduate.” Wen Zhigang, director of the Admissions and Employment Office of Guangzhou Technician College, said that the employment ratio for graduates of this school is as high as 6:1.
Yang Haiying, director of the recruitment and employment department of Guangzhou Light Industry Technicians College, agreed. “Some manufacturers will book graduates two years in advance, more than 60 percent of students will be booked a year in advance, and some classes will be booked out as soon as students enter the school.”
This shows how skilled Chinese workers are in demand.
“Behind the phenomenon of ‘skilled labor shortage’ are the increasingly prominent structural contradictions in the labor market. Although the total employment pressure remains unabated, the manufacturing and service industries are facing difficulties in recruiting general workers and a shortage of skilled workers.” Said Liu Kang, the first-level inspector of the Ministry of Professional Ability Building Department.
Since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China has entered an era of rapid development through this shareholder ethos. When the financial crisis broke out in 2008 and the global industry was shrouded in the shadow of the economic crisis, China’s industry relied on its own technological innovation and structural adjustment to launch a new round of shocks to higher goals.
However, with the development of the times, the industries that support China’s lifeline are increasingly showing signs of fatigue. The massive loss of workers has become a thorn in the hearts of Chinese manufacturers. Preliminary statistics show that there is a shortage of more than 22 million skilled workers in China. Many manufacturers hire a large number of employees at one time, but they are lost in less than a month. In order to retain employees, they even increased their wages to 8,000 yuan. But even in the face of such a temptation, due to various reasons, few people will resolutely enter this field.
Faced with such a situation, many manufacturers are afraid to take orders, and the equipment purchased with a lot of money can only be depreciated in the workshop. This is the current dilemma faced by many Chinese manufacturers.
The relevant person in charge of Guangzhou Technician College said that this situation has something to do with China’s education policy in recent years, which promotes elite education. Chinese universities only focus on academic education and ignore skills education. Only those who do not study well or cannot go to university will go to vocational and technical schools. Therefore, technical jobs are inferior to people before they formally enter the labor market. Coupled with the current chaos in performance management, such groups have encountered too many criticisms in society. “Prejudice is formed so naturally, it is definitely not a simple individual factor, it should be more of the general environment.”
Even setting aside the educational environment, when these Chinese students graduated successfully and started working, they came to an unpleasant working environment. The roar of noisy machines, the pungent chemical smell, irregular work and rest schedules, and a strict management system all dissipate a person’s enthusiasm for work all the time.
Inevitably, since the work is always based on equipment, most of the time, technicians are in passive labor, and the workplace is always only in the workshop, gradually derailing from the outside society.
In addition, there are many factors that can have an irreversible impact on health. Long-term exposure to a noisy environment may not detect any abnormalities in the short term, but in the long run, it will cause neurasthenia at least, and deafness in severe cases.
In order to save protection costs, many Chinese manufacturers will selectively ignore these potential threats that have a negative impact on the human body.
In addition to the noise caused by the rapid operation of the equipment, there are also unpredictable safety hazards. According to incomplete statistics, China’s annual work-related death toll is 130,000, far exceeding the annual death toll caused by traffic accidents (100,000) and violent deaths (70,000).
In the repeated boring work day after day, the gradually paralyzed nerves lost their alertness. The accident happened in an instant. At that instant, if you fail to respond in time, the cost of life is likely to be paid.
Another fact is that the post-90s and post-00s have gradually started to work. Most of them are only children and have been spoiled since childhood. Compared with the boring, heavy and messy work in Chinese factories, they prefer to work in office buildings. Although wages are not as high as in factories, it is easier for them to see the future direction.
Behind China’s structural shortage of skilled workers
There is a strong demand for skilled personnel, and it is both an urgent task and a long-term plan to accelerate the improvement of the skill quality of workers and expand the team of skilled workers.
“Skilled workers are an important force supporting Chinese manufacturing and Chinese creation. Improving vocational skills is an important foundation for promoting Chinese manufacturing and service to mid-to-high-end,” said Zeng Guang’an, chairman of Guangxi Liugong Group Machinery Co., Ltd., strengthening the skilled labor force. Grasp the stock and increment together.
At present, there are nearly 2,400 technical schools in China with about 3.6 million students. On average, about 1 million graduates are sent to society every year. The employment rate of graduates from technical and technical colleges has remained above 97% for a long time, and they have been welcomed by employers such as Chinese manufacturers. They are the main source of highly skilled talents.
Liu Kang said that although technical colleges will enroll 1.6 million students in 2020, the highest level in the past 9 years, and the strength of technical colleges has steadily improved, the number of training is far from enough. “The next step is to vigorously develop technical education, increase support from all parties to technical colleges, and strive to achieve new developments in technical education and vocational skills training.”
Zhang Lixin, director of the Department of Vocational Ability Building of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, previously stated that since the reform and opening up, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the status of highly skilled talents has been rising. At present, the employment rate of technical colleges is the highest among all types of education.
On the one hand, college students are “difficult to get jobs,” on the other, “technicians are still popular.” On the surface, it seems that there is a certain disconnect between talent training and the needs of the talent market. In fact, there are many problems hidden in this.
Dong Liangmin, director of the Human Resources Department of Henan Luohe Jihua 3515 Leather and Shoes Co., Ltd., said that with the development of business and the increase in orders, the company’s senior technicians are increasingly in short supply. “We now have about 1,100 production workers and only a dozen craftsmen; if half of them are craftsmen, then the labor efficiency will be greatly improved and the transformation of products to meet the market will be very smooth”.
In order to make up for the shortage of senior skilled workers as soon as possible, governments at all levels have also done a lot of work to this end. Luohe Technician College is a comprehensive public college approved by the Henan Provincial People’s Government and sponsored by the Luohe Municipal Government to train high-skilled talents. There are more than 10,000 students in the school. There are no less than 20 schools like this in Henan.
Ma Zhanxin, deputy dean of Luohe Technician College, believes that repairing the “technician gap” cannot rely solely on the “craftsmanship spirit”, but also requires the implementation of policies by governments at all levels. “Our technician college has been promoted to a higher vocational school, but the academic certificate and education It doesn’t work. How to implement the treatment of high-tech students in junior colleges and the treatment of undergraduate technicians is a big problem. The system and policies must be truly implemented.”
The reporter found that since the spring of this year, various job fairs have been held in various places with high frequency, providing jobs involving medical care, machinery, chemicals, electronics, accounting, marketing, real estate, tourism, logistics and other industries. Chinese companies have strong demand for employee recruitment. Some companies, especially expansion and newly-built companies, have recruited hundreds of people.
However, many Chinese electronics manufacturers have encountered the same problem and embarrassment by coincidence, that is, “Doctors and masters are running all over the street, but it is difficult to find senior technicians in the electronics field.”
At the recruitment fair held in Langfang City, Hebei, the monthly salary offered by manufacturers for skilled workers with certain professional requirements was mostly 4,000 to 5,000 yuan, which was much higher than the monthly salary of 2,000 to 3,000 yuan for ordinary operators, but not Recruiters from a few companies still say that skilled workers are hard to find.
Faced with the complaints of Chinese manufacturers, skilled workers have their own trade-offs. Cao Lei, who has been engaged in CNC machine operation for 5 years, is planning to find a better-paid company. He confessed that the salaries offered by manufacturers for technicians do not seem to be low, but there is still a gap compared with the actual labor for technical positions.
It is understood that most of the salaries provided by manufacturers for skilled workers include various insurance premiums, overtime pay, etc. In fact, the monthly salary paid to skilled workers is not as high as advertised, which leads to the employment of technical posts. The structural contradiction that nobody does is difficult to resolve.
The high mobility of skilled workers and the difficulty of stabilizing the technical staff of many manufacturers are also important reasons for the gap in technical positions in enterprises.
Relevant experts believe that the problem is that manufacturers do not have a strong awareness of cultivating skilled talents, and the Chinese society has not formed an effective mechanism for talent-oriented. “Some companies are unwilling to take tuition fees, and they are unwilling to let their talents go out of production to participate in related training and further education; some skilled talents have low salaries and benefits, and high-skilled talent incentive policies are not in place.”
Breaking the “ceiling” of the growth of mechanics in China
“The popularity of manufacturing technicians cannot be simply attributed to multiple reasons. To solve the problem of not recruiting skilled workers with high salaries, the government, enterprises, and colleges need to work together and cooperate to play a role. On the one hand, we need our students and parents to change their concept of employment, and relevant departments have increased the construction and investment in vocational education to improve the level and quality of vocational education; on the other hand, employers should change their short-sightedness and focus on recruiting talents and not paying attention to keeping others. Insufficiency. Only in this way can the situation of frequent shortages of manufacturing technicians be truly solved.” The above-mentioned expert said.
“The Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for the National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Outline of Long-Term Goals for 2035” proposes to strengthen the training of innovative, applied and skilled talents, implement knowledge renewal projects and skill enhancement actions, and strengthen the teams of high-level engineers and highly skilled talents.
Relevant experts said that in order to solve the problem of the shortage of skilled personnel, in addition to implementing policies, it is also necessary to remove some institutional and institutional obstacles.
“At present, compared with management talents and professional technical talents, skilled talents still have problems such as low salary and low sense of acquisition.” The above-mentioned experts said that the social concept of emphasizing academic qualifications and neglecting skills has not yet been fundamentally changed.
“Improving the training, use, evaluation and incentive mechanism of skilled talents, and strengthening incentive guarantees are very important to improve the stability of the skilled talent team.” Liu Kang said.
In 2020, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China issued a document to allow highly skilled talents to participate in the selection of professional titles in the fields of engineering, agriculture, and experimental technology, so as to fully integrate the career development channels of highly skilled and technical talents.
Tong Tian, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, said that breaking the boundaries of vocational skill evaluation and professional technical title review, breaking the “ceiling” for the growth and development of skilled talents, and establishing an “overpass” for the growth of high-skilled talents and professional and technical talents are conducive to stimulating the vitality of the team and cultivating compound talents.
Increasing salaries is a great tool to increase the attractiveness of skilled worker positions. A few days ago, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China issued the “Skilled Talent Salary Distribution Guidelines”, requiring the establishment of a skilled talent salary distribution system oriented to reflect the value of skills, and vigorously improve the professional honor and economic benefits of skilled talents.
The “Skilled Talent Salary Distribution Guidelines” clearly stated that high-skilled leading talents are a key minority in the skilled talent team, and their salaries should be increased, and economic treatment should be encouraged in accordance with the standards of senior managers.
At the National People’s Congress this year, Xia Zhaoji, deputy to the National People’s Congress, secretary and director of the Party Branch of the Mechanical Assembly and Maintenance Department of Linyi Technician College, suggested that government departments should increase support for technical education and put forward a number of specific measures.
Tang Tao, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China, said at a press conference of the State Council Information Office that the structural reform of the human resources supply side should be accelerated.
“Next, the intensity of vocational training must be increased.” Liu Kang said that during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, high-quality, large-scale, and multi-level vocational skills training should be carried out. Explore the establishment of a diversified investment mechanism of government financial funds, enterprise employee education funds, social donation and sponsorship, and individual payment by laborers to improve training supply capabilities.
Training methods should be further innovated. Liu Kang pointed out that it is necessary to develop order-based and package-based training based on national professional standards, promote the co-construction and sharing of training resources, and build a number of public training bases and production-education integration bases to effectively improve the quality of training.
Regarding the development and motivation of skilled talents, Zhang Lixin said that first of all, we must increase the training and training efforts to solve the problem of insufficient sources of skilled talents and low quality at the source. At the same time, the evaluation system for skilled talents must be reformed. On the basis of reducing the recognition of vocational qualifications, it is necessary to extensively develop the vocational skill level recognition system, give full play to the role of socialization and marketization, play the role of the main body of manufacturers in China, play the role of the third-party evaluation agency, and provide evaluation standards for the majority of skilled talents.