Changes in the structure of migrant workers as Guangdong's economy brews a new landscape

Behind the rapid rise in migrant workers from within the province, the slow decline in migrant workers from other provinces, and the accelerated growth of the permanent resident population——behind the entirely new changes in Guangdong's population structure, the Guangdong economy is undergoing marked changes over the course of its long-term evolution.

Data from the Guangdong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security show that between 2009 and 2013, migrant workers from within Guangdong rose from 7.9 million to 10.48 million, an average annual increase of more than 640,000. At the same time, migrant workers from other provinces fell from 17.77 million to 16.54 million, an average annual decrease of more than 300,000.

“Guangdong's accelerating urbanization has led to rapid growth in the number of migrant workers from within the province; the transformation and upgrading of the Pearl River Delta has raised the requirements for population quality, and the accelerated economic development of the central and western regions has led to a reduction in the number of migrant workers from outside the province.” said Chen Hongyu, an expert on regional economic research at the Party School of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Driven by the strategies of the “dual transfer of industry and labor” and the “revitalization of eastern, western and northern Guangdong,” urbanization in Guangdong's relatively underdeveloped regions has shown a clear trend of acceleration. From 2008 to 2013, the average annual growth of eastern, western and northern Guangdong reached 19.7%, 13.1% and 18% respectively, higher than that of the Pearl River Delta region by 8.4, 1.8 and 6.7 percentage points respectively.

Wang Wensen, director of the Comprehensive Division of the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics, told reporters that from 2010 to 2013, the urbanization rate of eastern and northern Guangdong grew at an annual rate of 0.56%, while that of western Guangdong reached 0.93%.

“The rapid growth of eastern, western and northern Guangdong has laid the foundation for local urbanization, and the increase in the permanent resident population of these regions is higher than that of the province as a whole. It can be said that Guangdong has now seen a situation in which eastern, western and northern Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta advance together, and the ‘dual engine’ pattern has basically taken shape.” said Chen Hongyu.

At the same time, the pace of transformation and upgrading in Guangdong, especially in the Pearl River Delta, is accelerating. At present, in workshops across the Pearl River Delta, the use of “robots” for tasks such as loading and unloading, handling, feeding, welding and spraying is expanding rapidly. In the injection molding plant of Gree Electric Appliances in Zhuhai, Guangdong, robotic arms place finished products onto conveyor belts to be sent to the packing area, while handling robots shuttle through the factory transporting various goods…… Cheng Hailiang, director of the injection molding plant, said that through the use of robots and automation upgrades, the workforce was reduced from more than 300 people at first to more than 100, while production efficiency increased by 20%.

There are more and more such enterprises in the Pearl River Delta. Since the beginning of this year, governments in Guangzhou, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan and other places have also introduced policies to promote “replacing workers with robots.”

“Under such circumstances, Guangdong's requirements for its population structure have clearly risen. Coupled with the ‘employment at one's doorstep’ opportunities brought by the rise of the central and western regions, a reduction in the number of migrant workers from outside the province is inevitable.” said Cai He, dean of the School of Sociology and Anthropology at Sun Yat-sen University.

But the shrinking trend in the number of migrant workers from other provinces does not mean that Guangdong's appeal as a major manufacturing center in China has weakened. According to data from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics, Guangdong's permanent resident population was 91.94 million at the end of 2005, 96.38 million at the end of 2009, and by the end of 2013 it had increased to 106.44 million.

“From an increase of more than 4 million to an increase of more than 10 million, the acceleration is obvious. The Pearl River Delta has not faded.” said Zheng Zizhen, director of the Guangdong Institute of Population and Sociology at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences. While “replacing people with machines” moves it away from a development model reliant on cheap labor, some governments and enterprises in the Pearl River Delta have also simultaneously advanced “the upgrading of people” and “the equalization of people.”

In 1995, 19-year-old Geng Fawang graduated from a vocational high school in Yanling County, Henan, his home province, and became an inspector at a screening plant under Gree Electric Appliances. Geng Fawang's life advanced along two trajectories: one was his level of knowledge, from vocational high school to junior college to undergraduate, and then to pursuing a master's degree; the other was his position, from inspector to machine repair worker to machine repair supervisor and then to technical lecturer.

In this process, Geng Fawang received subsidies for education costs from the company and the government. “Guangdong's training subsidies for migrant workers have grown larger and larger. In 2009, it took the lead nationwide in launching a universal training program for migrant workers; beginning in May 2014, it also began implementing an equalized labor skills training system with lifelong subsidies regardless of household registration, helping migrant workers accelerate their transformation into modern industrial workers. These measures have played a positive role in strengthening the Pearl River Delta's appeal.” said Zheng Zizhen.

“In recent years, Guangdong has vigorously promoted the equalization of basic public services, so that the appeal of this major manufacturing center is no longer limited to the economy but has gained more humanistic color.” said Cai He.