22 million gap, 1.5 million people leave every year, manufacturing industry needs to understand young people better

Difficulty in recruiting manufacturing workers during the two sessions has sparked heated discussions

Suggest encouraging young people to deliver less takeout and enter factories more often——On March 5th, Zhang Xinghai, a member of the National People's Congress and chairman of Xiaokang Group, made this suggestion on the hot search list. He said that in recent years, food delivery, e-commerce, online live streaming, and other industries have attracted a large number of young people for employment. Many young people are unwilling to go to factories, leading to an increasingly prominent phenomenon of hollowing out of industrial workers. He suggested that the government, society, enterprises and other parties work together to encourage and support young people to become industrial workers and alleviate the problem of difficulty in recruiting workers in the manufacturing industry.

As a representative from a manufacturing enterprise, having such concerns and making such suggestions is undoubtedly based on certain practical considerations. According to a set of data provided by Zhang Xinghai, there was a talent gap of 22 million in China's manufacturing industry in 2020, with an average of 1.5 million people leaving the industry each year in the past five years. In sharp contrast to the labor loss in the manufacturing industry, the number of express delivery workers exceeded 10 million.

Diversified employment choices impact the manufacturing industry

In fact, the problem of labor shortage in the manufacturing industry has existed for a long time.The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently released a ranking of the top 100 occupations in China for the fourth quarter of 2021, with 43 occupations belonging to the sixth largest category - manufacturing and related personnel. Since the release of this ranking in the third quarter of 2019, the proportion of manufacturing related occupations has been consistently high.

If we trace back, even before the emergence of express delivery and food delivery, many media outlets had already paid attention to the problem of "snatching people" between the service industry and the manufacturing industry: some young people would rather become waiters than workers in workshops.

Today, young people born in the 1990s and even 2000s have more diverse employment options.上述热搜新闻下，有网友的点评具有一定代表性，“送外卖相比于进厂，身体上比进厂累，精神上比进厂不那么累，还相对自由，也算是多劳多得”。

不同的时代会产生不同的岗位，不同时代的年轻人会有不同的职业追求、对一份更好的工作会有不同的定义。

再往前追溯，曾经还出现过制造业与农业“抢人”的问题。改革开放后，随着农村人口大量涌入城市，“80后”不想种地，“90后”不懂种地，人们一度有过“年轻人都去打工了，谁来种地”的忧虑。但随着社会主义新农村建设的蓬勃发展，以及乡村振兴拉开帷幕，越来越多的年轻人开始回到农村，或投身生态种植养殖业，或经营网店、开民宿等，路越走越宽。当年轻人能从中找到足够的价值感和成就感，农业的吸引力和活力自然就回来了。

缺工问题背后是没读懂年轻人

同样，我们希望更多年轻人选择从事制造业，就需要切切实实增强制造业的吸引力。制造业是立国之本、强国之基。我国制造业规模连续多年保持世界第一，在驱动经济发展、参与国际竞争中发挥着重要作用。而制造业的高质量发展需要更多朝气蓬勃的年轻人投身其中。

薪资待遇的提高、劳动条件的改善、劳动保障的完善、成才空间的拓展，都是能够有效提升制造业吸引力的重要因素。只有当年轻人感到进工厂当工人尤其是技术工人是一件挺体面的事，才能从根子上解决制造业的缺工问题。

对于快递、外卖、直播这样的新就业形态，在吸纳大量劳动力就业的同时，也应该在劳动保护、技能提升、成长空间上有所改善。像送外卖，一度被认为是“吃青春饭”，缺乏技术含量，没有成长空间。如果长此以往，也难免会被劳动者“用脚投票”。好在有关方面正在顺应现实需求，着力做出相应的制度安排。如人力资源和社会保障部去年底发布《网约配送员国家职业技能标准》，将网约配送员职业分为五个等级，明确了各等级需掌握的工作内容、技能要求和相关知识，让网约配送员拥有更加清晰的职业发展通道。

某种程度上说，如果因为缺工而引发跨产业间在福利待遇、工作环境、劳动保障方面的比拼，倒是件好事。无论制造业还是服务业，无论传统行业还是新兴行业，能读懂当下的年轻人，了解其多层面需求，切实提高岗位的吸引力，才是能招得来人、留得住人的关键，才是促进相关产业发展的关键。 

信息来源：工人日报