The International Herald Tribune (via <a href="http://del.icio.us/chinasnippets" title="Del.icio.us links for user chinasnippets">ChinaSnippets</a>, via <a href="http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/chinadn/en/2005/03/thomas_fuller_t.php" title="China Digital Times: Seeking unskilled workers, by Thomas Fuller">China Digital Times</a>) reports on <a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/29/business/workcol30.html" title="IHT: The Workplace: Seeking unskilled workers">a shortage</a> of unskilled labor in Guangdong area factories:

<quote cite="http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/29/business/workcol30.html">
It has been nine months since the government of Guangdong Province, across from Hong Kong, first acknowledged an acute shortage of workers. And the situation has not improved: In February the provincial government said one million workers were needed in this highly industrialized part of China that is, without exaggeration, the factory to the world, making everything from sneakers to mobile phones.
.
Officially the shortage represents around 5 percent of the Guangdong migrant work force, but a study done by the provincial statistics office shows a broad-based problem: 70 percent of 329 companies surveyed said they were having difficulties recruiting workers.
</quote>

Anecdotally, Shanghai seems to be suffering from a milder form of this phenomena.  A surprising site to me when I arrived here were the 人才市场, "talent markets", that I saw around the city.  They are typically little storefront deals with postings of jobs on boards out front.  Typically, they are for managers at factories, and semi-skilled manufacturing positions.  My general sense is that it's easy to find a job in Shanghai, but that wages are low and hours are long, so lots of people feel discouraged from looking for a better job.

Then they give up all-together and spend the day sitting in net cafes playing World of Warcraft and/or watching soft-core porn.

Can you guess where I spent half-an-hour today?