A decade-long shift of labor-intensive manufacturers from China to Southeast Asian countries has been accelerated by the strict lockdown measures in Chinese cities between March and May, according to evidence cited by many analysts and various news reports.
The latest manufacturers to succumb to the temptation to lower their wage and other costs by moving are primarily from the tech sector, which had not been strongly affected earlier when garment makers and other lower-end manufacturers were the ones mainly being forced out.
Chinese policymakers take some solace from figures showing that even higher-tech replacements are coming in. However, potential members of the manufacturing workforce cannot help noticing with some alarm that fresh graduates in China have started to accept minimum wages in factories due to a lack of high-paying jobs elsewhere.
