Chinese authorities have been talking up increased benefits, including higher pay, to entice more skilled labor into the workforce.

The State Council Information Office held a press conference on March 26 to extol the crucial role of the industrial workforce in innovation-driven development.

With the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and the acceleration of manufacturing, a shortage of skilled workers and structural problems have become increasingly severe.

“Lots of skilled workers have a relatively disadvantaged social status, their incomes levels and benefits are quite low,” said Tang Tao, vice-minister of Human Resources and Social Security, in explaining the incentive program.

“They don’t receive any sense of honor and fulfillment from their work. Especially for those young people, due to the traditional culture and mindset, they are unwilling to engage in skilled careers.

“To meet the growing demand of skilled workers and change their view about low social status, it’s important to maximize the interest of workers in the front-lines of the workplace, encouraging them to engage in their jobs.”

Yan Jinghua, vice-president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, said, “Our priority is to arouse the workers’ enthusiasm and initiative to their jobs. Therefore, we have established wage incentives to reward those qualified skilled workers with higher income. And we have encouraged them to participate in more professional training sessions to further improve their skills. All those benefit treatments we have implemented are skills-oriented.”