40% of migrant workers not going home at New Year

Nearly 40 percent of migrant workers taking part in a nationwide survey said they wouldn't be going home for the Spring Festival, many because they've earned less than expected in the past year.

The survey, published yesterday by job hunting website daguu.com, interviewed 13,156 migrant workers across the country, with an average age of 24.7 years old. About two thirds are male and 931 work in Shanghai.

About 47 percent of respondents who were not going home said they felt too embarrassed to return to their hometowns as they'd earned so little.

About 21 percent said they were staying because it would be easier to find a job when so many others were leaving.

Other reasons given for staying away from home were that train or ferry tickets were difficult to buy at Chinese New Year and that overtime pay during the holiday is high.

Up to 73 percent of the respondents said they want to work in big cities such as Shanghai and Beijing or Guangzhou and Shenzhen in southern Guangdong Province.

But nearly 77 percent of those polled said they received unfair treatment in cities.

About half of the respondents said city dwellers looked down upon them and pay rates were different between city residents and migrant workers doing the same work.

Some 74 percent of those surveyed said it was easy to find a job but it was difficult to find a good one.

Most of the respondents did laboring work due to having a basic education background and a lack of work skills.