General

The "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Stability and Quality Improvement of Foreign Trade" issued on May 26 this year mentioned that the provinces where the epidemic-related areas (county-level administrative areas where medium and high-risk areas are located) are located, and at the same time as epidemic prevention and control, determine The list of key foreign trade enterprises and the list of related logistics enterprises and personnel guarantees production, logistics and employment. This newspaper continues to pay attention to the employment problem of foreign trade enterprises, and continues to communicate and discuss this topic with relevant experts and scholars in the industry. Wang Ming, an associate researcher at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Human Resource Development Research Center, School of Economics and Management, South China Normal University, is optimistic that there will be a trend of "new industrial workers + new factory management" in the future of manufacturing.

In Wang Ming's view, the surge in foreign trade orders in the manufacturing industry under the epidemic has led to a surge in labor demand, which is a contradiction between supply and demand under the current epidemic prevention and control due to the difficulty in returning to work and the difficulty in recruiting new workers in the manufacturing industry. short-term reasons. As for the long-term reasons, Wang Ming believes that, on the one hand, the continuous industrial upgrading and high-quality development of the manufacturing industry requires a large number of medium and high-skilled industrial workers, and the shortage of skilled talents is a long-term structural shortage of labor in the manufacturing industry; on the other hand, China The population structure has changed, and the overall supply of labor has been decreasing year by year, while the younger generation is reluctant to work in the manufacturing industry, making it difficult to recruit and retain front-line workers.

How to solve the labor problem of foreign trade enterprises in the manufacturing industry? "The short-term countermeasure is that local governments need to explore how to ensure the orderly movement of workers across regions under epidemic prevention and control, such as opening special channels for enterprise recruitment with the assistance of the government, and implementing special management for cross-region migrant workers." Wang Ming analyzed that long-term The countermeasures are, first, vigorously develop vocational education, train industrial workers, and support the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry; second, turn crises into opportunities, use mechanization, automation, digitalization and other means to relieve labor pressure, and at the same time realize technological transformation and upgrading of enterprises, Governments at all levels need to do a good job of policy guidance and incentives for technological upgrading in key industries; third, attach importance to the high-quality development of labor relations in the manufacturing industry, improve working conditions, and ensure decent work for workers.

Wang Ming believes that at present, foreign trade enterprises, especially manufacturing foreign trade enterprises, will still have difficulty in employing labor. The domestic epidemic is also difficult to alleviate the labor problem immediately. Local governments need to explore effective governance models to organize and coordinate the normal flow of labor. Enterprises should actively respond and carry out "reverse-forced" technological transformation to alleviate the problem of labor difficulties.

"With the high-quality development of my country's manufacturing industry and its deep participation in the international division of labor, the employment trend of the manufacturing industry will usher in the employment trend of 'new industrial workers + new factory management'. Increase efficiency, and gradually realize informatization, digitalization and even intelligent management, labor relations have been greatly improved, and labor conditions have been improved." Wang Ming said.