China's widening salary gap becomes major cause of employee migration

Shenyang [China], July 17 : China witnessed a dip and an exodus in the employment sector, especially concerning regional cities like Shenyang, where now employees are finding it difficult to make a living due to slow economic growth, reported Nikkei Asia.
China, in its April to June quarter, witnessed an exodus in the employment sector as employment and domestic demand remained sluggish, with Shenyang losing many workers.
Highlighting an example of a taxi driver, Zhang, belonging to Liaoning province in northeastern China, the same report mentioned that he has been searching for employment abroad, preferably in Singapore, as he said, "I can't survive in my hometown like this."
Meanwhile, Zhang's older sister, who works as a maid at a hotel in Singapore, earns double what he earns in his hometown. His income tops around 7000 Yuan (USD 960), within this, he is not able to make ends meet and is not able to afford the living costs of his daughter, who is currently in school.
In his statement, Zhang said, "I want to save money to make the trip abroad, but I have to use my savings to survive now. It would be nice if there were good jobs in my hometown, but there are none. That's why young people are leaving town one after another."
Another resident of Shenyang, who left 10 years ago and works in product design and engineering at a home appliance manufacturer in Guangzhou, is earning 20,000 yuan a month (more than twice as much as Zhang) and regularly sending 2,000 yuan back to his parent's home.
The resident, after graduating from a university in Guangdong province, decided never to return to Shenyang because of the severely low salaries for the same job. According to him, "Even if I return to Shenyang, where economic growth is slow, there wouldn't be many stable full-time jobs," the person said.
The gap between China's major and small cities has been a long-standing problem and has widened because of the country's ongoing dip in the real estate sector. As many small cities have no prominent industries other than real estate which has been affecting the growth of the employment sector.
The average monthly salary in Shenyang from January to March was 7,726 yuan, about 3,300 yuan less than in Guangzhou, and this gap has been widened by 50 per cent within five years, the Nikkei Asia report claimed based on data by human resources company Zhaopin.
Lower pay and benefits in these areas lead to an outflow of workers and the old population. Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2021 showed that the rate of residents 65 or older in Liaoning province was 17.4 percent, as the report claimed, as this figure was highest in China's 31 provinces, autonomous regions and directly controlled municipalities.
The people who are of working age remain in outskirt areas and are left with no choice but to become frugal.
One way of doing so is either by living in a family home or in an elderly care centre. And one such cafe was found offering meals at 10 yuan for people over 70 and 12 yuan for those younger. But several youngsters can also be found reaching these cafes to save money, a local claimed in the same news report.