A few days ago, the National Bureau of Statistics released the ''2020 Migrant Workers Monitoring Survey Report'' and disclosed that the total number of migrant workers in 2020 was 285.6 million, a decrease of 5.17 million from the previous year, a decrease of 1.8; in 2020, the average age of migrant workers was 41.4 years old, compared with the previous year An increase of 0.6 years; the average monthly income of migrant workers was 4072 yuan, an increase of 110 yuan over the previous year, an increase of 2.8.

In 2020, the proportion of migrant workers engaged in the construction industry was 18.3 per cent, down 0.4 per cent from the same period last year to 52.2648 million; the average monthly income of migrant workers engaged in the construction industry was 4699 billion yuan, an increase of 132 yuan over the previous year, an increase of 2.9 per cent, slightly higher than the average and lower than the 3.5 per cent growth rate of the manufacturing industry.

The extent of change in the migrant worker population can be seen more clearly by comparing the 2020 data with previous survey reports.

The total number of migrant workers began to decline

In 2009, the total number of migrant workers in the country was 229.78 million, and has increased year by year since then, reaching a peak of 290.77 million in 2019. In 2020, the total number of migrant workers began to decline, which is the first time since the statistics, the total number of migrant workers in China has declined.

Since joining the WTO in 2001, migrant workers have played an important role in promoting China's economic development. With the disappearance of the "demographic dividend", traditional human-intensive industries must be transformed and upgraded to find a new development model.

Aging of migrant workers is accelerating

In 2008, the average age of migrant workers was 34 years old; in 2009, 61.6 per cent of migrant workers were aged 16 to 30, and 83.9 per cent were under 40. By 2020, the average age of migrant workers has reached 41.1 years old, the proportion of migrant workers aged 40 and below is only 49.4 percent, and the number of migrant workers over 50 years old has exceeded 75 million, accounting for 26.3 percent.

The proportion of migrant workers over 50 years of age was 19.1 per cent in 2016, 21.3 per cent in 2017, 22.4 per cent in 2018 and 24.6 per cent in 2019. It can be seen that the aging of migrant workers continues to accelerate.

More and more migrant workers rush to the tertiary industry

In 2009, the average monthly income of migrant workers engaged in the construction industry was 1625 yuan, and migrant workers engaged in the construction industry accounted for 17.3 of the total number of migrant workers; in 2020, the average monthly income of migrant workers engaged in the construction industry was 4699 yuan, and migrant workers engaged in the construction industry accounted for 18.3 of the total number of migrant workers. In more than 10 years, the income of migrant workers in the construction industry has nearly tripled, but the proportion of migrant workers engaged in the construction industry has not increased significantly.

In fact, the number of migrant workers working in the construction industry, which peaked at 61.091 million in 2014, has fallen to 52.2648 million by 2020, a decrease of 15.5 per cent.

It is worth noting that in 2009, the proportion of migrant workers engaged in manufacturing was the largest, accounting for 39.1 per cent. By 2020, this proportion has dropped to 27.3 per cent. This shows that more and more migrant workers begin to leave the secondary industry represented by manufacturing and construction industry and go to the tertiary industry.

Migrant workers continue to decline

In 2016, the number of migrant workers reached a peak of 176.49 million, and by 2020 it will drop to 169.59 million. In 2009, among migrant workers, there were 74.41 million migrant workers working outside the province; in 2020, among migrant workers, there were 70.52 million inter-provincial migrant workers.

Due to policy support and other factors, more and more migrant workers are not willing to travel far away.

Increase in the proportion of migrant workers with college education or above

In 2009, 1.1 per cent of migrant workers were illiterate, 10.6 per cent had a primary school education, 64.8 per cent had a junior high school education, 13.1 per cent had a Senior high school education and 10.4 per cent had a Secondary specialized school education or higher. In 2020, 1 per cent of all migrant workers will have no schooling, 14.7 per cent will have a primary school education, 55.4 per cent will have a junior high school education, 16.7 per cent will have a Senior high school education and 12.2 per cent will have a college education or above.

According to the data of 2011, the number of migrant workers with college education or above in China is 13.4 million, which will increase to 34.84 million by 2020. The continuous growth of the number of migrant workers with college degree or above shows that the employment situation is still grim in recent years, on the other hand, it also shows that this group has become the "reserve army" to help the adjustment of industrial structure ".

It must be pointed out that due to the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the data related to the 2020 migrant worker surveillance survey may be biased, but the overall trend will not change. This means that for a long period of time in the future, the construction industry, which still uses migrant workers as the "main force" to promote the development of the industry, must throw away the "labor-intensive" label as soon as possible and develop to "innovation-driven.

In recent years, the state and industry authorities have been increasing their efforts to promote the comprehensive and deepening reform of the construction industry, and some enterprises that stick to the traditional development model often ask questions: why do they have to transform? The answer can be given by the changes in the migrant workers over the years:

Because of the new changes in the "foundation" supporting the development of the traditional construction industry, the aging of workers, high labor costs, and "labor shortage" are staged every year, industry companies must respond in advance. Under the two frameworks of the disappearance of the "demographic dividend" and the construction of ecological civilization, the construction industry must transform to industrialization, embrace technological innovation, and vigorously train industrial workers. Only in this way can it continue to play the role of pillar industries and achieve high-quality sustainable development.