The growth rate of China’s migrant workforce has fallen to levels not seen since the depths of the global financial crisis.
The total number of migrant workers rose 1.3 per cent in 2015 to 277.8m, the slowest rate since 2009 according to data available from the National Bureau of Statistics.
In 2014 the number of migrant workers had increased 1.9 per cent of 2014, on par with growth in 2009. But growth in China’s mobile workforce jumped to 5.4 per cent year-on-year in 2010, thanks in part to a major stimulus package that revved up economic activity through infrastructure projects and real estate development – and which has left a fraught legacy of overcapacity as the country attempts to transition toward a more services-oriented economy.