LOCAL manufacturers seeking recruits after the Spring Festival are finding cheap labor is not so easy to get.

They are noticing a decreasing interest among job seekers, most of whom are migrant workers, who are opting for better paid jobs such as delivering food.

Advance Technical Products Co Shanghai, a company based in suburban Jiading District, has not been able to recruit two assisting machine operators for its factory in Malu Town.

“We’ll raise the monthly salaries of migrant workers to 4,500 yuan (US$655) this year, but the job seekers are aiming at 6,000 to 7,000 yuan,” said the firm’s human resource manager, surnamed Zhang, at a job fair in Jiading yesterday. She added that free meals and accommodation were also being offered.

Rising labor costs and the tax burden could ultimately drive her company, which has two decades of history in the city, out of business, she said.

A human resource manager surnamed Cheng from Shanghai Lingli Mould Steel Co, a 16-year-old stainless steel manufacturer, said “we see more and more frequent resignations from workers.”

Like many other companies in the industry, Lingli has also been sourcing workers from schools for technicians from out of town, but this is not resolving the problem. “Very few young graduates stay with us after doing internship because most are fed up with factory life after a few months and not satisfied with the salaries,” Cheng said.

A 27-year-old assembly worker surnamed Shen, who is from Jiangsu Province and has had seven years of working experience in Shanghai, is looking for a job in the same category this time, aiming for a monthly salary of at least 6,000 yuan.

“Now that I’m married, I need a job with higher salaries to support my family,” he said. “If a food delivery man’s income is competitive with a job in the factory, I’ll consider changing my profession.”

Media reported earlier that some mail delivery companies are facing a drain of workers at their Shanghai branches to food delivery services because their delivery workers are better paid.

But a 33-year-old migrant worker from Henan Province, surnamed Hu, said he would stick to factory jobs after working for manufacturers for seven years.

“Mail and food delivering is a hard job because you’ll have to run around the streets all day long,” he said.