Jobs the Chinese won’t do

This one got me, too.  Apparently, there are some jobs the Chinese just won’t do:

SHENZHEN, China — Persistent labor shortages at hundreds of Chinese factories have led experts to conclude that the economy is undergoing a profound change that will ripple through the global market for manufactured goods.

The shortage of workers is pushing up wages and swelling the ranks of the country’s middle class, and it could make Chinese-made products less of a bargain worldwide. International manufacturers are already talking about moving factories to lower-cost countries like Vietnam.

At the Well Brain factory here in one of China’s special economic zones, the changes are clear. Over the last year, Well Brain, a midsize producer of small electric appliances like hair rollers, coffee makers and hot plates, has raised salaries, improved benefits and even dispatched a team of recruiters to find workers in the countryside.

That kind of behavior was unheard of as recently as three years ago, when millions of young people were still flooding into booming Shenzhen searching for any type of work.

A few years ago, “people would just show up at the door,” said Liang Jian, the human resources manager at Well Brain. “Now we put up an ad looking for five people, and maybe one person shows up.”

For all the complaints of factory owners, though, the situation has a silver lining for the members of the world’s largest labor force. Economists say the shortages are spurring companies to improve labor conditions and to more aggressively recruit workers with incentives and benefits.

The changes also suggest that China may already be moving up the economic ladder, as workers see opportunities beyond simply being unskilled assemblers of the world’s goods. Rising wages may also prompt Chinese consumers to start buying more products from other countries, helping to balance the nation’s huge trade surpluses.

That would probably be true if China weren’t still a one-way autarky.  There’s nothing whatsoever prohibiting the Chinese from importing more food, for example (except, of course, for the Chinese government).

I also wonder if the problem isn’t that they aren’t able to get the kind of workers they’d prefer:  unmarried women under 30.  They take direction better, have a better eye for detail, nimble fingers, and not too many health problems.  Sounds like comeuppance to me.