GUIZHOU LOOKS TO CHINA COAST TO RE-EMPLOY PEASANT MIGRANT

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