Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09CHENGDU3
2009-01-06 06:49:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Consulate Chengdu
Cable title:  

GUIZHOU LOOKS TO CHINA COAST TO RE-EMPLOY PEASANT MIGRANT

Tags:  SOCI ECON PGOV CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
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ZNR UUUUU ZZH
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FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
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INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 3719
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000003 

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SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SOCI ECON PGOV CH
SUBJECT: GUIZHOU LOOKS TO CHINA COAST TO RE-EMPLOY PEASANT MIGRANT
WORKERS

REF: 08 CHENGDU 299

CHENGDU 00000003 001.2 OF 002


UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000003

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SOCI ECON PGOV CH
SUBJECT: GUIZHOU LOOKS TO CHINA COAST TO RE-EMPLOY PEASANT MIGRANT
WORKERS

REF: 08 CHENGDU 299

CHENGDU 00000003 001.2 OF 002



1. (U) This cable contains sensitive but unclassified
information - not for distribution on the internet.




2. (SBU) SUMMARY: Labor officials and researchers say an
economic upturn in the more prosperous coastal region is the key
to reducing the swelling number of unemployed migrant laborers
in southwest China's Guizhou province. Our contacts in Guizhou
are skeptical that government-sponsored job training programs or
direct financial assistance to unemployed migrant laborers will
significantly increase these workers competitiveness in the
local job market. These contacts are equally pessimistic that
national-level economic assistance programs will noticeably
change the employment opportunities for migrant laborers. End
Summary.



Banking on Coastal Recovery

--------------




3. (SBU) Officials at Guizhou Province's Labor and Social
Security Bureau told us in late December that the province
offers only limited job opportunities. An influx of 500,000
unemployed peasant migrant workers returning from coastal and
other provinces will greatly increase pressure on the employment
market. As of late November, Guizhou labor officials estimated
that nearly 166,000 peasant migrant workers had already returned
home from outside the province, after seeing their salaries
slashed or losing their factory jobs. Press reports and
government officials forecast the trend to continue through late
January when 400,000 - 500,000 peasant migrant workers will have
returned to Guizhou because of reduced wages or job loss; the
total number of returnees may exceed one million (see reftel).
The Labor Bureau said that in an ordinary year only about
600,000 workers, both employed and unemployed, return home for
the Spring Festival holiday, which comes in late January this
year.




4. (SBU) Beyond the strain on the local job market, the province
is also likely to feel the loss of remittances that provide half
the total cash income to people in rural areas of Guizhou
Province. Mao Gangqiang, who works for the Research Center for
Rural Guizhou Governance, highlighted the example of Zunyi
County, a county subordinate to Guiyang City located north of

the city center. There, as much as 40 percent of the population
works outside the province. Mao told us that Zunyi peasant
migrant workers send about 2 billion Renminbi (RMB),or about
USD 293 million, back to the county each year. Peasant migrant
workers from Wuchuan County sent back an average remittance home
of 3,000 - 4,000 RMB (USD 440 - 586),according to Mao.




5. (SBU) Guizhou labor officials said that the provincial
government will encourage peasant migrant workers to go outside
the province after the Spring Festival to find work. In a
recent survey of peasant migrant workers who returned to
Guizhou, 51 percent said they planned to return to the coast to
find work in the New Year. The government's challenge will be
to encourage the 49 percent of respondents who intend to stay in
the province to find work outside the province. Sun Qiu, a
Director at the Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences,
directly tied the prospects for Guizhou's peasant migrant
workers to the coastal economic downturn. She said a long
period of poor economic growth would likely have a strong
negative impact on Guizhou peasant migrant workers and lead to
social unrest.



Government, Workers Looking to Training...

--------------




6. (SBU) Nearly two-thirds of returning peasants said that they
wanted skills training to help them find a better job in the
future, according to the Labor Bureau's survey. An even greater

CHENGDU 00000003 002.2 OF 002


percentage of peasants hoped to receive general vocational
training. Migrant laborers identified restaurant, textile, and
food processing-related work as the fields in which they would
most like to receive training. Guizhou, as of late-December,
planned to provide subsidies for worker training. Most training
lasts 2 - 4 weeks. As one example, the Labor Bureau said that a
returning migrant worker could receive 500 - 800 RMB (USD 73 -
114) for a 15-day restaurant training course, although officials
did not explain how this money was dispersed.




7. (SBU) Guizhou is also considering offering longer-term
training at vocational schools that would last 3-12 months.
Labor officials told us that tuition at the schools would cost
1000 RMB. They also say that peasant migrants from Guizhou can
receive training in Shenzhen. Guizhou labor officials say that
Shenzhen pays for the "first stage" of training, while Guizhou
pays for 80 percent of the "second stage," although they did not
elaborate on the content of the first and second stages of
training.




8. (SBU) Labor officials tout currently available and planned
training programs as a way to increase the competitiveness of
Guizhou's migrant laborers. The officials said that once
workers obtain a certificate of course completion from one of
these short-term training courses, they will be better able to
compete for coastal jobs.



...But Some Observers See Efforts Falling Short

-------------- --




9. (SBU) Mao is skeptical that training will significantly
alleviate the unemployment problem among migrant laborers. In
his opinion, training will not help most returning migrants find
work. Huang Yin and Li Li, former employees of a disbanded NGO
who continue to work with migrant laborers, told us that many
returning migrants do not expect that training will help them
land a job. These three contacts said that Guizhou needs to
focus on creating jobs in the province. Mao credited a local
job fair in Guiyang with helping find 4,000 unspecified jobs to
returned migrant laborers, but said that more needed to be done
to provide benefits and services. He and Sun both said peasant
worker needed better medical care, pensions, and education.
They also called for reduced fees and taxes for migrant workers.




10. (SBU) Sun told us that she doubted Guizhou, and the
returning peasant migrant workers, would receive substantial
direct benefit the recently announced 4 trillion RMB (USD 586
billion) stimulus plan. She felt that Guizhou would not be able
to compete successfully against other provinces to get funding
for the kinds of large-scale projects that could become a needed
source of new jobs. She also said that she had not heard of any
plan by the provincial government to offer 100 RMB (USD 15)
vouchers to low income residents, as was done in Sichuan.




11. (SBU) Comment: It is unclear how Guizhou plans to manage the
funding of its training programs. This may lead to the kinds of
misappropriated funding already reportedly seen in Sichuan. A
local newspaper in Sichuan ran a story in late December that
highlighted provincial efforts to combat fraud in their worker
training programs. The Chengdu Shangbao reported that training
organizations had fraudulently submitted reimbursement requests
for 4,700 students who did not exist.
BOUGHNER