China's Growing Labor Shortage

Shaun Rein of the China Market Research Group submits:

This column originally appeared in Forbes

China's factories are starting to hum again, and the country's exports were up 46% in February over a year before. But a problem is emerging. As hard as it may be to believe, those factories can't find workers. At the National People's Congress in Beijing last week, government leaders discussed the labor shortage afflicting Guangdong, nicknamed the factory of the world. Some of its factories are unable to run full-steam. How is that possible? Doesn't China, with its billion-plus people, have a limitless supply of cheap labor? Aren't those poor masses of Chinese people dying for jobs?

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