One hot topic about China's labor market in 2011 is on the widespread labor shortage and reported difficulty of recruiting workers facing enterprises not only in the coastal regions but also in the central and western regions. This chapter mainly tries to unravel the existence of surplus labor force in agriculture and its features and to look into the institutional barriers preventing exploiting potential of labor supply. This chapter suggests that the transfer of labor-intensive industries to the central and western regions is a key to deeply exploit surplus labor force in agriculture. It concludes with an international comparison that pictures the future pattern of labor shift.
<<