Business Costs in China are Rising

Go here to read an interesting article about how problems recruiting and retaining workers, particularly skilled ones, are raising the cost of doing business in China.

Can China—population 1.3 billion—really be running short of people? In many of the most important parts of its booming economy, the answer, increasingly, is yes. Though China has a vast pool of unskilled labour, firms in the south now complain that they cannot recruit enough cheap factory and manual workers. The market is even tighter for skilled labour. As the economy grows and moves into higher value-added work, the challenge of attracting and retaining staff is rising with the skill level, as demand outstrips supply. The result is escalating costs for firms operating in China. “If you think that China is a cheap place for labour, think again,” says Vincent Gauthier of Hewitt Associates, a human-resources consultancy.