Costs of Manufacturing in China are increasing

The cost of manufacturing labor in China is increasing. Influences such as location are playing a big part in the growth of costs within the sector, Chinese manufacturing workers whose jobs are located outside the major cities earn far less than the average. Their annual compensation was $1,282, or $107 per month ($0.53 per hour). Manufacturing workers in the cities make almost two times that amount: $2,336 per year, or $195 per month ($1.47 per hour).

During the last decade the United States has lost millions of manufacturing jobs whilst China has been gaining many millions. The massive growth in manufacturing employment in China tells a differing story to that circulated by the Americans that manufacturing employment in China is declining, just as it is in America.

China's manufacturing employment increased by 10 percent in four years, from 100.9 million workers in 2002 to 112 million in 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The increase was almost equal to the total number of Americans working in the U.S. manufacturing sector (14 million at the end of 2006, declining to 11.6 million in November, 2009). China has 100 million more people working in its manufacturing sector than does the United States.

Manufacturing employment in China bottomed out in 2002 after peaking in 1996, the growth has since restarted thanks to the "foreign demand for Chinese-manufactured goods growing by 25 percent per year," says the BLS.