Less enthusiastic job-hunters turned up at Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, for the city's first labor fair after the beginning of the lunar year. From China Daily,

...the job-seekers gathered there appeared not be as enthusiastic as their counterparts of years past. For the first time, the number of job-hunters fell far short of the number of vacancies advertised at the fair: 4,000 versus 7,000...

- which really disappointed employers who could only raise their salary standards 13% (on average to 1,160 yuan or $155 a month) compared to previous years. (Come to think of it, this is almost exactly how much I receive as monthly stipend as a scholarship student in China).

Yet trade unions and government officials in Guangdong have pointed out that wages in Guangzhou have failed to keep up with inflation and the overall growth rate of industrial output, and need to be increased further. Does this mean, the China Labour Bulletin wonders,

that Guangdong's trade union and labour officials are now determined to take their responsibilities seriously, and defend the rights and interests of workers in the province? Crucially, Guangdong union officials have now acknowledged that the most effective way to protect wage levels and ensure regular payment is through direct negotiations between labour and management.

Yet only time will tell, they conclude, as the actions of trade unions over the coming years will indicate whether developing collective bargaining at the grassroots level will make enterprise-level unions genuine representatives of workers' rights.

Some workers in Guangzhou, however, are wondering whether their jobs are even worth it. From Tim Johnson at China Rises (blocked on mainland China), three U.S. researchers who spent time querying 634 factory workers outside Guangzhou railway station before the spring festival found underlying concerns not only about low wages and poor working conditions but also about whether it was worth the effort at all. Suppliers desperately need to improve job satisfaction in China, the researchers concluded (I noticed though seemingly universally disparaging comments on the China Rises site to the research mentioned in the posting).

A recent article from AP (via Herald Tribune, see also China Law Blog's downplaying response) suggests that, due to pressures of regulation and rising costs for energy, materials and labor, China's economy is set to lose its claim on cheapness. Similar echoes from Frank Langfitt at NPR outlining the pressures faced by shoe, furniture and other manufacturers and smaller factories generally in China, and FT.com about the plight of Changdeng Shoe Company in Guangdong, whose company compound recently became a ghost town as the company folded in the face of

...a survival-of-the-fittest struggle affecting primarily smaller factories in relatively low-tech, labour-intensive industries...

Lastly, some hyperbole from the China Economics Blog (blocked on mainland) who quotes an article from the Peterson Institute claiming  that, without anyone noticing, the capitalists have upended the People's Republic by effecting a significant redistribution of income away from workers. This might be, they say, the mother of all redistributions. According to a few Berkeley economists, between 2002 and 2005 the share of economic output going to workers decreased by about 8 percentage points, from about 50% of GDP to 42%.

It is clear that capitalism, the CEB posting infers,

now has China in its icy grip.

I myself am overjoyed that it seems we might be in for a nice mild spring in the north of China this year round.