China population: coronavirus pandemic fuels decline in migrant labourers amid fears about ageing workforce
- The number of migrant workers in China declined by 5.17 million last year compared to 2019, the first drop since 2008
- The fall was largely attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, but experts say the ageing population is a problem too
China’s vast workforce of migrant labourers is shrinking and getting older, mirroring a broader trend that is raising fears about a demographic crisis in the world’s second largest economy.
For the first time since 2008, the number of migrant workers in China fell last year, dropping 5.17 million from 2019 to 285 million, according to survey data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The construction, hotel and restaurant sectors lost the most migrant workers, parts of the economy that were particularly hard-hit early in the pandemic, the data released on Friday showed.
The number of workers employed in manufacturing also declined, but that was in line with a trend that has seen more people leave jobs in factories to take up positions in the service sector in recent years, and has helped keep overall unemployment stable.
Geoffrey Crothall, communications director at Hong Kong-based rights group the China Labour Bulletin, said the pandemic could not explain the whole phenomenon.
