Migrant Workers Stay Home, Stinging Employers

Between the lines of help-wanted posters plastered on walls in Chongqing's bus and train depots were hints of a deep anxiety shared by employers in manufacturing regions across China.

Millions of migrant workers who left live-in factory compounds in cities and eastern provinces to celebrate the annual Spring Festival holidays in early February were slow to return to their jobs afterward. Some have apparently decided never to return.

Labor officials reported a sharp decline in the number of workers migrating to factory regions after the holidays from their homes in small cities, villages and rural areas across the country, particularly from the inland provinces of Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Hebei, Anhui and Henan.