A report from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics reveals that by the end of 2008, there was a total of 225.42 million migrant workers in China, and about 5.8% of these had been affected by wage arrears.
The report says that about 70 million Chinese migrant workers returned home before the Chinese Spring Festival and over 80% of them traveled to cities for work after the Spring Festival. Of these, 45 million have already found jobs and 11 million others are still looking for a job. In addition, up to 20% returned migrant workers have chosen to be employed or self-employed in their hometown.
In addition, about 37.6% of the 140.41 million migrant workers who work away from their home towns are said to come from the middle of China, 32.7% from the west of the country and 29.7% from the east of the country. The east part of the country attracts about 71% of the total migrant workers, the middle part 13.2%, and the west part 15.4%. Migrant workers who choose to be employed in their home town are mainly from the east part of the country, accounting for 62.1% of the total who stayed.
The report says that Chinese migrant workers returned home mainly in the fourth quarter of 2008. Most of them went home from east part of the country. Those who work in the manufacturing and construction industry were affected most by the financial crisis and the overall education level for returned migrant workers is low, with 82.9% of them having received only junior high school or lower education.
Of the migrant workers who return home as a result of the financial crisis, 13% are said to have been affected by wage arrears due to their employers closing and 5.7% have their salaries deferred as a result of staff cuts.
The report states that 2.2% of the migrant workers who returned home do not have any land to cultivate.
