The annual Spring Festival travel rush, a period known in China as chunyun when millions of people return from cities to their homes, has started earlier than ever this year. This is due to the increasing costs of buying and renting housing and other business-related reasons, such as the increasing cost of recruiting employees and upgraded technology, the 21st Century Business Herald said in an editorial.
That migrant workers are returning home earlier than usual may indicate a slowdown in manufacturing activity, but it may also just be due to a desire to miss the peak travel rush, the paper said.
The high cost of living in cities, particularly the cost of housing, also restricts people's ability to consume. High housing prices mean high prices for land, which also means it costs more to recruit labor. Due to great pressure on manufacturing and service costs, some labor-intensive enterprises are transferring their factories to cheaper locations. This also means workers have to move.
Local governments do not focus on the flow of immigrant workers; instead, they care more about local taxes and other policy preferences. When the government requires labor-intensive firms to engage in transformation and upgrading, this increases costs for these industries, and they will likely either shut down or move to remote areas.
Also, employers are unwilling to recruit workers as technology adapts and upgrades. Older migrant workers may not easily adapt to the new technology, so these groups will also leave urban areas.