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IPP Review is the official WeChat platform of the Institute of Public Policy of South China University of Technology (IPP), a national high-end think tank

Introduction:

At present, under the current recruitment situation of "difficulty in finding employment" and "difficulty in entering factories", labor-intensive jobs in some areas are still facing a "recruitment panic", especially during the peak season or the "618" and "Double Eleven" shopping carnivals, some businesses are faced with a surge in orders but a dilemma of difficulty in finding enough temporary workers.

Li Ting, an associate researcher at IPP, pointed out that changes in consumption patterns, industrial production patterns, and workers' employment concepts are comprehensively affecting the production rhythm of enterprises, which in turn will affect the order of the labor market. She believes that according to the changes in workers' employment concepts, the production rhythm of enterprises can be appropriately guided, and enterprises can actively adjust their production rhythm, which may be an effective solution to the current problem of "difficulty in recruiting workers".

In the context of the difficulty in finding employment, some companies are still facing the problem of difficulty in recruiting workers. There are many factors affecting this problem.

Changes in production rhythm are one of the reasons for this problem.

This thought originated from a discussion with an enterprise. When discussing the difficulty of recruiting workers, a manager of an auto parts factory told us that the difficulty of recruiting workers in their enterprise is mainly reflected in the recruitment of temporary workers. With the economic downturn and the increase in order volatility, the recruitment of temporary workers has become the main way for enterprises to solve the problem of volatile orders. Although the number of temporary workers in the current labor market is increasing, when the busy season of enterprises coincides with activities such as "618" and "Double Eleven", they will still face difficulties in recruiting temporary workers.

When "Double Eleven" and other events are held, a large number of companies have urgent orders to complete, and the salary is very high, mostly paid on a daily or weekly basis. This is very attractive to temporary workers, and a large number of temporary workers will be arranged to complete such orders. If the company's busy season coincides with these consumer carnival cycles, it is easy to find people.

The problem behind this is,Changes in the rhythm of production will lead to changes in the order of labor allocation.

The production rhythm refers to the time it takes to produce a product, including the time distribution and duration of the overall completion of a production order, and the time distribution and duration of the completion of different links of a single product. Changes in consumption patterns, industrial production patterns, and workers' employment concepts will affect the production rhythm, which in turn will affect the order of the labor market.

Carnival consumption, centralized production

"Double Eleven" and other "carnival-style consumption" have become an important trend in current consumption.This leads to a more heterogeneous production rhythm——The production demands that were originally scattered in different periods need to be responded to in a concentrated manner within a short period of time. As a result, the demand for temporary workers in a large number of companies has increased and become more concentrated.

The impact on the entire labor market is that if the carnival period coincides with a company's peak production season, the company will face the following two dilemmas in recruiting workers: on the one hand, there is an overall imbalance between supply and demand in a short period of time; on the other hand, the rigidity of completing "Double Eleven" orders causes temporary workers' wages to rise rapidly, and the payment methods are all daily or weekly.

For general companies, considering the impact of the rapid increase in temporary workers' wages on contract workers, they are generally unable to keep up and will face the situation of being unable to recruit temporary workers. Ultimately, they can only solve the problem by asking their employees to work overtime.

From the workers’ perspective,Their concepts about work and demands for production rhythm are also changing.When recruiting workers, companies find that there is a general tendency in the current labor market, especially among young employment groups: they hope to have relatively free work, a less intense work pace, and especially do not want to work late shifts.

During the "Double Eleven" consumer carnival, the shortage of industrial workers, express handlers, porters and other occupations increased. Source: Xinhua News Agency

Changes in consumption patterns have led to the production rhythm being concentrated in a short period of time, which will inevitably lead to employees working overtime and working late shifts. In other words, working overtime and working late shifts have become more "mandatory". This will also reduce the attractiveness of some companies to employees, which in turn affects their recruitment, including the recruitment of permanent employees.

Regardless of the salary level, under the same environment,The production rhythm of different industries or different links in the industrial chain is differentThe attractiveness to industrial workers is different, and the degree of influence of the macro environment also varies.

For example, in the garment industry, orders fluctuate greatly and there are many urgent orders. The requirements for production quality are not high, the production time of a single product is short, the production rhythm is tight, and there is a large demand for temporary workers. The ratio of temporary workers to stable workers may be 7:3 or even higher. The overtime of regular workers is more rigid and less free. Overall, industrial workers are more mobile.

Garment factories in the Pearl River Delta region have a large demand for skilled temporary workers and high worker mobility. Source: Xinhua News Agency

However, in some industries such as the mold industry, orders are relatively stable, product quality requirements are high, production pace is relatively slow, and demand for stable workers is relatively large. The ratio of temporary workers to permanent workers is often 3:7 or even higher. The overtime demand for stable workers is more flexible. Overall, industrial workers are relatively stable.

A young industrial worker who has worked in a mold factory for six years told us that he used to change jobs frequently because he could not accept the tight production pace of many factories. Each link on the assembly line has a rigid time limit. Even going to the toilet requires someone to cover for you. Overtime is also mandatory, and it is very difficult to ask for leave. Later, the reason why he was able to work in this mold factory for so long was that the production pace of this factory was relatively slow, with similar wages. Due to quality requirements, each link would not deliberately limit the completion time, but only the overall order volume requirements for the entire team; the time given was also relatively ample, and most of the time you could choose to work overtime or not; if you become a team leader, you even have the authority not to work the night shift.

Overall,When consumption carnival triggers changes in the rhythm of production and leads to changes in the market order of temporary workers, the former category of industries represented by clothing are more likely to be affected.

Personalized consumption, flexible production

Another change in consumption patterns is personalization, customization, and diversification. The impact of accelerated product iteration on production isThe size of a single order is reduced, order distribution is more dispersed, production cycle is shortened, and production tends to be flexible and elastic, which is manifested in the "small order quick response" model gradually becoming dominant.

Under this model, the production rhythm has also undergone significant changes - from a full-year perspective, the production time layout is more dispersed, the uncertainty and fluctuation of orders are greater, the time to complete a single order has become shorter, and the pace of completion of different links of a single product is faster.

This will bring about two changes in the labor market: on the one hand, the demand for temporary workers is increasing; on the other hand, the need to work overtime to complete orders becomes greater.

This also has different impacts on different industries or different links in the same industry.In some sectors that are technology- and capital-intensive, have relatively high added value and high industrial concentration, such as the textile industry, flexible production is mainly achieved through increasing capital investment and realizing the digitalization and intelligence of equipment.

A scene display of the C2M customized unmanned factory taken by Shanghai ASD Robotics Co., Ltd. Source: Xinhua News Agency

A textile factory we interviewed in Jinjiang said that the "small single and fast response" of fabrics is one of the important directions of industrial development. In order to cope with this change, they are improving the flexible production capacity of the enterprise by purchasing more equipment or improving the flexible production capacity of a single equipment.

However, for labor-intensive sectors with relatively low added value and relatively low industrial concentration, such as the clothing manufacturing industry, they mainly rely on more flexible employment, including increasing the number of flexible workers, improving the degree of flexibility, and changing the methods of flexible employment.

Although some clothing manufacturers have also tried to cope with the "small order, fast response" model through automation and digitalization of equipment, such as improving the flexible production capacity of sewing machines. However, because the clothing industry is relatively fragmented and most business entities are limited in scale, they operate in a light asset model in order to maintain flexibility. Therefore, the role of this flexible mechanism is very limited.Most companies can only rely on flexible employment to achieve flexible production.

Therefore, the proportion of temporary workers recruited by enterprises is gradually increasing, the time for a single recruitment is getting shorter and shorter, and the number of weekly or even daily workers is gradually increasing in the clothing manufacturing industry. In comparison, the clothing manufacturing industry is more susceptible to the "small order, fast response" model. This is mainly manifested in the increase in demand for flexible employment. The consumption carnival has led to the centralization of production and the transformation of the temporary labor market. The impact of the "small order, fast response" model has further aggravated the difficulty of recruiting workers in this type of industry or these links during the consumption "carnival period".

In summary,Adjusting the production rhythm may be one of the ways to deal with the difficulty in recruiting workers.

First, you canTry to properly guide and adjust consumption patterns and rhythms.

As a basic law of social development, the space for regulating consumption individualization is relatively small. However, there is a certain space and necessity for moderate regulation of consumption "carnivalization" based on comprehensive consideration of its contributions and negative effects.

Properly guide the production rhythm of enterprises according to the changes in workers' employment concepts, enterprises actively adjust the production rhythm, which is also one of the possible ways to solve the problem. On this basis, guiding workers to adapt to the objective changes in production laws and appropriately adjust their labor concepts can also be used as a supplementary method.

★Author: Li Ting, Associate Researcher, Institute of Public Policy, South China University of Technology

Click the link to read more articles by Li Ting

Li Ting: Let’s start with a few entrepreneurial stories in the clothing industry

Li Ting: Become a "daily salary expert" at Kanglu

Jinjiang Model: A New Mechanism for Regional Coordinated Development

About IPP

The Institute of Public Policy (IPP) of South China University of Technology is an independent, non-profit platform for knowledge innovation and public policy research. IPP conducts a series of research work on China's institutional reform, social policy, China's discourse power and international relations, and on this basis forms a good pattern of coordinated development of knowledge innovation and policy consultation. IPP's vision is to create an open platform for knowledge innovation and policy research and become a world-leading Chinese think tank.