Employment market could seesaw during pandemic in China

BEIJING, May 1, 2020, Xinhua. The job market could experience fluctuations this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making it even harder for vulnerable groups such as migrant workers to find work. These workers have already been hit hard by the revolution in information technology, China Daily reported.

In previous years, the domestic job market has been greatly influenced by the creation and application of robots and artificial intelligence, used mainly for efficiency, skills and knowledge, rather than physical strength.

According to a report by the World Economic Forum in 2018, machines were used for 29 percent of the manual work that year, with the proportion predicted to rise to 42 percent by 2022.

Demand among companies for automated production reportedly increased earlier this year as the viral outbreak affected the movement of large numbers of people, the majority of them migrant workers. Companies mainly relying on machinery considered themselves fortunate.

Ye Song, director of the production department at Jinyuming Food Co in Huangshan city, Anhui province, which produces and exports tea, said, “We used to employ 120 people to pack tea, but this number fell to around 40 with the introduction of a packaging machine in 2016.”

He said the city has been categorized as an area with a low risk of infection, and with the workshop being in an enclosed area, it is much easier to manage 40 people during the outbreak, rather than 120.

“The machines also mean better production quality and greater efficiency. This is cost-effective in the long term,” Ye said.

He added that one worker can pack 144 kilograms of tea a day, while an automated production line can handle 5 metric tons of tea daily, with just seven workers manning the line. “After we started using machines, our costs were reduced by 400 yuan ($57) per ton,” Ye said.

The company first considered introducing an automated packing line when it was finding it difficult to recruit enough younger workers, he added.

“Most of our workers used to be in their 50s, and they found it hard to find jobs outside their hometown, especially the women,” he said.

“Working conditions at factories are basic, making such employment less attractive to a younger labor force. As a result, we had to reduce our dependence on manual workers.

“Skills are another problem. It takes less time for the younger workers－I mean people in their 30s or 40s－at my company to learn how to operate machines, giving them an advantage over older employees.”

The emphasis placed on skills during the information technology revolution has focused more public and government attention on reshaping the jobs market to meet increased demand among employers.

In December, a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Population and Labor Economics said the emergence and development of new technologies requires job seekers to be skilled in communications and social behavior. Demand for skills in repetitive jobs has fallen, the report said.

Workers also need to have linguistic skills and the ability to operate a computer, rather than merely being able to complete a specific task.

Wen Xiaoyi, a professor at the China University of Labor Relations in Beijing, said, “Information technology, like artificial intelligence, is developing relatively quickly, which will lead to unemployment in some traditional industries.”

The report shows that in the three years from 2015, the introduction of robots and artificial intelligence to company production systems resulted in demand for manual workers falling by nearly 20 percent.

“The technology revolution brought automation to manufacturing. However, things have changed now, with greater demand for individual skills,” Wen said.

“In addition to workers who have been replaced by machines in manufacturing industries, professionals such as teachers and accountants will also face challenges, as the information technology revolution is based on big data, meaning that some jobs requiring experience can be done by machines.

“Some groups of employees will adapt to a higher level of work in designing new technologies, while others will have to quit jobs that can be done by machines to make a living from manual work.

“For example, it will take a long time for factory workers replaced by automation to master new skills, such as software design, forcing them to downgrade and find jobs such as delivering food or driving ride-hailing vehicles.”

New opportunities

Feng Xiliang, dean of the School of Labor Economics at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, said it is inevitable that “standardized jobs” will be done by machines.

“For example, factory and construction workers will be replaced by machines,” he said. “Even the service sector is attempting to use artificial intelligence technology in catering and marketing. But new opportunities and new professionals will also appear during this process.”

Wen said, “The emergence of flexible employment is a good example, and this will continue to expand.”

Wang Qiang, 47, from Datong, Shanxi province, used to be a shoemaker but lost his job in late 2018. He now works as a deliveryman in Beijing.

“I was laid off along with 30 colleagues after the company introduced automation. The work we did was not that skilled anyway,” he said.

Wang added that it was hard for him to learn how to operate machinery because he received a low level of education.

“Early last year, my friends encouraged me to come to Beijing to work as a deliveryman after I failed many times to find a job in my hometown, but I faced a number of problems at the start,” he said.

“I didn’t know how to use e-maps, which made me a little embarrassed. It also usually took me 10 minutes to complete the express delivery bills, as I hadn’t mastered the devices for this process, resulting in many complaints from customers.”

He said it took him about a month to master both e-maps and the bill devices, adding: “It was not that easy, but I gradually found that the job was interesting and involved flexible working hours. The pay is also much higher than in my previous job, so I don’t really regret having to make the change.”

Feng, the dean, said the emergence of new technologies has brought changes to the domestic employment market, resulting in the emergence of new professionals and fresh ways of working.

“New jobs will inevitably be created during the process of machines replacing workers,” he said.

New positions generated by the development of information technology, such as delivery workers, artificial intelligence engineers and cloud computing technicians, have attracted more potential employees. In April last year, such positions were also approved by the authorities and listed as officially recognized jobs.

“At the very start of the information technology revolution, the workers were ‘blown away’ by the changes, as they were not sufficiently prepared to upgrade their skills,” Feng said. “They can only make a living by continuously updating their knowledge and skills against the backdrop of a constantly changing jobs market.”

The government has stepped up efforts to provide skills training courses for job seekers, especially migrant workers. These efforts have been reinforced during the viral outbreak to prevent massive unemployment among key groups such as migrant workers and low-skilled employees from poor areas.

For example, last month, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launched a skills training program with free registration.

By late June, the ministry aims to provide training courses for more than 100 professionals through 50 online platforms. The courses will cater to 5 million workers.

Wen, the professor, said that as the nation encourages the development of new professionals and industries, some traditional sectors, such as manufacturing, are also of great importance in stabilizing the jobs market.

“For example, take the COVID-19 outbreak. We could have faced a shortage of face masks were it not for the support of such a strong manufacturing industry,” he said.

“The manufacturing sector has been the biggest draw for migrant workers and job seekers, but many factories switched production to countries and regions in Southeast Asia because of the impact of the information technology revolution.

“I think it is better to keep these factories in China to offer jobs to the low-skilled, including migrant workers.”