China’s labor supply is clearly tightening, judging by efforts of a distant-water fishery firm to recruit from a drug rehabilitation center in Sichuan Province.
Detainees in blue and yellow outfits at the prison-like facility near Meishan city – a source of China’s migrant workers until recent years – lined up for leaflets which promised salaries of CNY 280,000 to CNY 300,000 (USD 39,760 to USD 42,600, EUR 36,317 to EUR 38,912) per year to workers on distant-water fishing vessels – very high rates in comparison to average Chinese manufacturing wages. “Free accommodation and food” will also be provided, according to the leaflet, distributed by a recruitment agency on behalf of “China’s largest distant-water fishing company.” The leaflet didn't detail working hours or holiday entitlements.
The distant-water firm –one of several looking for workers at the event organized by the local justice department – wasn’t named, but is based in Weihai in Shandong Province, according to the authorities who ran the recruitment fair. The agency, Ge Da Di Qu Labour Resources Co., was also offering posts to crew on domestic-water fishing vessels at between CNY 100,000 and CNY 170,000 (USD 14,200 to USD 24,140, EUR 12,963 to EUR 22,038) per year. Candidates for all the fishing jobs must be aged 18 to 54 and in “good health.”
With the country’s labor force officially in contraction since 2018 as the country ages, China appears to be facing labor shortages in arduous work like distant-water fishing, which could contribute significantly to costs.
The public recruitment campaign, which featured on provincial Sichuan TV, is the second high-profile recruitment effort this year by the normally secretive distant-water sector. A social media advertising campaign by a labor agency earlier this year sought “hard-working” and “healthy” workers to sign up for two-year contracts on vessels operating off Argentina and Peru as well as the Pacific Ocean.
Applicants were promised pay of between CNY 80,000 and CNY 120,000 (USD 11,587 to USD 17,367, EUR 10,372 to EUR 15,559) per year “depending on performance” by the recruitment agency, based at the National Distant-Water Fishery Base in Zhoushan, one of the country’s leading fishery ports. That figure looks alluring given the average fishing family income averaged CNY 19,885 (USD 2,880, EUR 2,578) in 2018, according to statistics published by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Average industrial wages in the manufacturing hub of Foshan in 2018 ranged between CNY 60,000 and CNY 72,000 (USD 8,690 to USD 10,428, EUR 7,780 to EUR 9,337) per year – making the wages offered by the distant-water recruiters look attractive.
Photo by Igor Grochev/Shutterstock
