Younger Chinese are spurning factory jobs that power the economy

[sl8]

https://www.ibtimes.com/younger-chinese-are-spurning-factory-jobs-that-power-economy-3638308

Younger Chinese are spurning factory jobs that power the economy

November 20, 2022
By David Kirton

Growing up in a Chinese village, Julian Zhu only saw his father a few times a year when he returned for holidays from his exhausting job in a textile mill in southern Guangdong province.

For his father's generation, factory work was a lifeline out of rural poverty. For Zhu, and millions of other younger Chinese, the low pay, long hours of drudgery and the risk of injuries are no longer sacrifices worth making.

"After a while that work makes your mind numb," said the 32-year-old, who quit the production lines some years ago and now makes a living selling milk formula and doing scooter deliveries for a supermarket in Shenzhen, China's southern tech hub. "I couldn't stand the repetition."

The rejection of grinding factory work by Zhu and other Chinese in their 20s and 30s is contributing to a deepening labour shortage that is frustrating manufacturers in China, which produces a third of the goods consumed globally.


[...]

[True Dough]

1. So who's going to

churn out all of those AA lithium batteries that are already too expensive?

[sl8]

3. Singapore, in that case, but I take your point. :) nt

[Marcuse]

2. China needs a Samuel Gompers.

[The Jungle 1]

4. I worked production for a number of years.

It is incredibly mind numbing. Ok, so I am going to stand at this machine for 8 hours and make this part. You take your mind to a lot of places.

[Igel]

5. Yeah.

But production varies. When young, the "production line" was short and short-lived, by job in a small company that had 10 employees. We'd make the things and could chat at the same time. Not big-company automated assembly line.

Parents worked in a steel mill. While exciting moments were a bad thing, there was a variety of things to do. From taking samples and analyzing them, filing reports, preparing reagents or testing equipment it wasn't the same old/same old every minute or two (or less).

The automated assembly line is horrible. If you let your mind wander off then you may find body parts wandering off.

[hatrack]

6. 没人想再工作了

According to Yandex Translate, that's "Nobody wants to work anymore".

[3Hotdogs]

7. There was an article about this a few months ago.

Some guy posted a video, instead of working, “Lie flat.”

In other words, stay in bed.