The number of rural migrant workers seeking employment in Chinese cities has fallen, according to statistics from the country's human resources department. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced that the number of rural migrant workers had dropped by 2.1 percent in Q1, the first time in years that the number has decreased, QQ News reported. The data was based on monitoring undertaken by the ministry on the rural labour force from more than 500 villages, which also found that the number of those seeking jobs back in their hometowns increased by 3.4 percent in Q1. Official statistics show that the growth rate of rural migrant workers has been gradually slowing, shrinking from 5.2 percent in 2010 to stagnant 0.3 percent in 2016. Guan Xinping, a professor from Nankai University in Tianjin, said that the return of migrant workers to rural areas could be down to a number of reasons, including the difficulty associated with obtaining welfare in urban areas and the economic development seen by a large swathes of rural China.
Link : http://gbtimes.com/china/china-sees-decrease-domestic-migrant-workers