The particular lifestyle of Chinese migrant workers usually is marked by these characteristics:

1. Low base salary, long (paid) overtime all year round;

2. Undesirable living conditions: shared dorm rooms, lousy cafeteria food, etc.;

3. None or insufficient health insurance, social security and other benefits;

4. Difficulty in children's schooling: They are charged extra, lofty fees to go to public schools in the city;

5. Ineligibility for local government-subsidized housing for low-income households;

6. Oftentimes, separation from spouse and family.

During the heydays, migrant workers coped with these hardships, believing the pay back was worthwhile and hoping things would get better. As the global financial crisis battered the export sector, however, their hopes were shattered, leading them to rethink their jobs and life paths.

Here are some thought-provoking readers' comments from the WSJ article I mentioned in my previous post.

The most direct cause of the labor crisis is the fact that many factory owners in the Pearl River Delta vanished overnight. [In 2009, many such cases occurred. Local governments had to intervene and compensate abandoned workers for their overdue wages.]

I live in Shenzhen, where basic-level factory jobs pay 1,000 yuan [US$146.5] a month. That's about twice as much as 15 years ago. But during the same time period, GDP grew fivefold, consumer prices doubled, and housing prices increased 10 times. Therefore, being a migrant worker here is most exhausting and hopeless...

The labor shortage doesn't have much to do with the one-child policy. You can see a lot of people idling around and playing Mahjong, no matter where you go. [It's because the pay is too low.] Government employees make more than 10 times than a factory workers. Unless you are desperate, [who would want to work in a factory?]

Living standards in rural areas have improved a lot. Farmers' income is catching up with low-level city jobs, while the living expenses are very low in small towns and villages. Plus, living in your home village is very relaxing and stress-free. I regret going to college and staying in a big city. My life could have been happier if I had stayed in my hometown.

The so-called labor shortage is a blessing. It shows that people are defending their rights to live a decent life. My company also suffers from lack of workers and we can't finish order on time. But I still am glad for the future of China.

Other comments argued that some college graduates in cities are paid not much more than factory workers, hinting that labor wages are fair. But that's a story for another day - the oversupply of college graduates across China.