Chinese construction worker alacrity toward mobility

1 Introduction

Urbanization and rural modernization have liberated a lot of rural surplus labour, which is now rushing into the city [1]. However, these rural labourers have lower levels of literacy and numeracy and limited industry skills, other than agricultural ones, and it is difficult for them to find suitable jobs in the city. The construction industry, a typical labour-intensive industry, is particularly attractive to migrant workers due to its low barriers to entry and relatively high pay [2], and approximately one-fifth of migrant workers end up working in this industry [3].

Since the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, characterized by ‘part-time’ rural migrant workers, labour employment has gradually triggered and solidified in the construction industry. These rural surplus labourers go into cities to earn more money during the low point in the farming season and return home when the busy farming season approaches [4]. Usually in a family, the husband goes into the city while the wife stays home to tend the crops, foster children, and care for parents. Although they can earn a much higher annual income in the city than by farming in their hometown, they cannot abandon their land and work as migrant construction workers and must consider where they can make money on days when no employer hires them and that filial piety to their parents is necessary under a Confucian heritage culture [5]. Therefore, these rural migrant labourers position themselves as ‘part-time’ migrant construction workers and have a high degree of faith in their crops. They do not intend to take on construction work as a long-term career and the responsibility for their construction product they pay is far from as heavily as for their crops, without restrictive work acceptance standards and inhumane punishment.

The Chinese government has been reforming the construction employment model to fit the new economic reality during the past few decades [6]. Construction management and labour services are currently handled separately, with construction enterprises divided into general contractors, specialist contractors, and labour sub-contractors. After winning a bid, general contractors will contract labour services to labour sub-contractors, who organize rural labour to finish field operations. However, labour sub-contractors have become abnormally fleeting and mobile, with few migrant construction workers to employ. Rural migrant workers intent to make money [7] and are not beholden to any labour sub-contractors.

As employers, construction contractors are reluctant to cultivate self-owned operatives. Construction contractors keep in contact with many ‘gangmasters’ [8], special individuals who sign a labour service contract, recruit, and organize rural migrant labour for in construction operations. The ‘gangmaster’ becomes a middle general or specialist contractor for employing and managing migrant construction workers with minimum labour costs, which results in many problems in the construction industry.

Compared to manufacturing, construction projects are temporary and immovable [9], a characteristic that naturally leads to mobility of migrant construction workers. We distinguish between natural mobility, where workers move away after completing construction work, and abnormal mobility caused by the external environment or personal aspects that entice workers away from employers arbitrarily, whether or not the construction project is finished. This study focuses on the latter.

Bai and Li [10] pointed out that 73.3% of migrant construction workers have moved between employers, the highest among all industries examined. Sun et al. [11] conducted a field survey and found that 82% of migrant construction workers have changed employers.

Numerous studies have illustrated that such job mobility may lead to extensive negative effects (for example, [12, 13]), which include not only employers’ declining willingness to invest in training programs, the subsequent stagnation in operation techniques and workers’ creativity [14], and a higher probability of workers behaving irresponsibly, but also accumulating risks of quality and safety accidents [15], the deterioration of employer-employee relationships, and an increasing number of violations of workers’ rights (e.g., wage arrears or non-payments) [11]. A paradox illustrated by numerous studies [16, 17], that the shortage of skilled migrant workers has been gradually aggravated amidst the abundance of rural supply, came as a surprise to researchers and practitioners. The transient nature of workers’ job mobility, switching from one employer to another frequently, represents a grave concern regarding training workers and safety management [18]. Migrant construction workers’ perceptions of being exploited by employers have been aggravated by the rampancy of withholding payments or even non-payments in this industry [19] due to frequent job mobility. Taken together, these findings fuel the present study exploring the components that instigate construction workers’ willingness to change jobs.

In this study, Job mobility willingness refers to situations where migrant construction workers volunteer to plausibly change employers within the construction industry. Curiously, research on construction workers’ job mobility from an individual approach remains scant. This study aspires to analyse and identify the individual aspects affecting their decision to change jobs, including age, work tenure in the construction industry, education, daily wages, job-hunting channels, number of workmate, and employment contract. The investigation uses a questionnaire survey to collect samples for statistical analysis. Despite its several imitations, our findings offer useful policymaking recommendations toward relieving the informal termination of migrant construction workers in China.

The literature review on job mobility precedes a brief introduction to construction labour market in the Chinese context. Survey design results follow. These underpin development of our model and our research hypotheses for the survey. Subsequent sections present methodology, survey findings, contributions, limitations, and practical implications.

2 Literature review

Labour mobility has been an important research topic in organizational behaviour, human resource management, and labour economics. Sorokin [20], an American sociologist, offered the first definition of social mobility and pioneered related research. Over time, researchers found that mobility exists in some occupations in the form of social mobility. Blau and Duncan [21] proposed that social mobility, like income, class, and power is based on occupational mobility. Since then, occupational mobility has drawn significant research interest and controversy. Scholars have examined mobility patterns and direction, effects, and the influence of aspects such as age, gender, family, career selection, social network [22], education, interpersonal relationships, job satisfaction, organisational support [23], mobility costs [24], and job embeddedness [25]. Hom et al. [26] reviewed nearly 100-years of employee turnover theory and research. The growth timeline of turnover research was divided into six epochs where the critical transitions and methodological developments in this topic were marked, as well as the critical contributions of each epoch.

During the period of central planning, an administered labour employment was carried out, the migration of rural labour to urban areas was strictly curbed, and thus labour mobility was nor permitted. Up to the onset of mark-oriented reform, rural labour gradually acquired more rights to move into urban jobs [27]. Critically, the spreading industrialization of the construction industry has led to a rapid rise in precarious informal jobs performed outside of the purview of regulation and filled by migrants [28]. The majority of these migrants are hired as informal, temporary, and unregistered workers. Gradually, the construction industry is typified by a high job change of workers [11].

The construction industry is notorious for its difficult and dangerous working conditions, including long hours, wage arrears, lax enforcement of health and safety standards, bad food, lack of labour contracts, limited access to medical insurance and retirement and poor housing. The rural-urban movement has historically been, and continues to be, shaped by the so-called “hukou system” in China [19, 29]. Entering into the city, construction migrant workers will face the precarious informal employment as well as a precarious existence in the cities where they reside without the full access to social welfare benefits and the formal right to live in the city [30].

Swider [28] pointed out that in China, over 90 percent of field construction migrant workers are migrants, who are all hired as informal workers and the majority of them are unregistered migrants. Those informal jobs are performed outside the purview of the state, and are labelled precarious because these jobs do not provide employment stability, are low waged and lack social protection. Then she defined the ‘employment configuration’, focusing on the important linkage between the labour market (specific pathways into a job) and specific types of employment relations, finding that there is little movement of construction migrant workers across three different employment configurations, and in mediated employment, their mobility are confined to the workplace once they are hired into the city, which limit migrant workers to expand their social networks.

Du et al. [31] developed a systematic framework to categorize all job mobility variables into job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and demographic variables to measure the willingness of Chinese construction managers to change jobs, indicating that seven job satisfaction and organizational commitment variables dominate the decision, while demographic variables (gender, marital status, age, length of service, education, form of organization, and position) were not significantly associated with mobility. Investigating the effect of job embeddedness (fit, links, and sacrifice) and work satisfaction on mobility willingness in IT migrant construction workers of small and medium firms, Cho and Son [32] found that mobility intention is lower when workers must make a greater sacrifice, have higher career and job satisfaction, have a higher fit, and more links. Focusing on the European construction industry, Fellini et al. [33] explored how recruitment decisions can affect international migratory flows, and pointed out that recruitment strategies generate and affect migration in a far more complex and multifaceted way than a macro demand-driven approach would predict; recruitment via internal labour markets and international sub-contracting produces mobility. Jones et al. [34] were the first to test the unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover (UMVT) in the construction sector, which considers job satisfaction and external aspects such as luck, labour market forces, and the economy, and revealed that the UMVT’s ability to interpret voluntary employee mobility among construction professionals was weak. Studying civil engineers in the Australian construction industry, Lingard [35] determined that burnout is caused by not only emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment, but because of complex interactions of individual characters and issues in the work environment, which were strong predictors of engineers’ intentions to leave their jobs.

In contrast to the first generations, the new generation migrant workers, defined as those who are born form 1980 onwards, have considered getting urban jobs and wages as a means to embrace urban life, rather than the sole or major propose of migrant [36]. Responding quickly and proactively to discrimination [37] and/or dissatisfaction in the secondary or informal sectors that are characterised by low pay, job insecurity, poor working condition, lack of labour contracts, and less promotion opportunity [30], the new-generation migrant workers have a higher tendency towards continuous mobility, which are facilitated by the prevalence of various information communication technologies and social gatherings, such as smart mobile phone, instant messaging, social networking service, and dating websites. Berntsen [38] contextualized the job mobility of migrant construction workers in the European labour market, revealed that their job mobility remains relatively unorganised but does so in undeclared incremental ways. The difficulties in organising an effective collective resistance against exploitative terms of employment shaped workers’ common pragmatic response of changing jobs, rather than getting their employers to change working conditions.

However, a review of the literature indicates that researchers have focused on job satisfaction and the organizational environment, with less attention on demographic variables. Few studies have examined how multifaceted variables affect the willingness of employees to change jobs, and fewer still examine this issue in the context of migrant construction workers. Thus, this study attempts to extend the demographic variables and focus on migrant construction workers in the Chinese context.

3 Survey design

The questionnaire design in any study is very important. We first collected all macro- and micro-aspects that affect migrant worker mobility, then held preliminary interviews by attending meetings among developer, government regulator, construction manager, gangmaster. We considered their occupational and population characteristics to select suitable components: age, work tenure, education, daily wages, job-hunting channels, number of workmate, and employment contract.

The overwhelming majority of migrant workers are male; therefore, we rejected gender as a potential variable. Behaviour changes with age, so it is logical to include this item. Work tenure is also relevant because the probability that migrant workers will move also varies by the length of work experience and familiarity with employers. Currently, most Chinese migrant construction workers have low education levels and it is easier for educated migrant workers to find job information; therefore, we included education as a potential variable. Most workers focus on wages, and construction workers are no exception. The channel and amount of job-hunting has a direct effect on migrant workers’ willingness to move, which makes the job-hunting channel a potential variable. Number of workmate is a potential variable because it can reflect the social network. Contracts may also have an effect because they safeguard rights and interests. After selecting the independent variables, we conduct a field survey as follows seven notes or principles.

First, pilot interview. The pilot highlighted any potential obstacles during the main interview, and provided the opportunity to refine the questionnaire. For example, it may be difficult for migrant workers to make sense of the questions. Second, full communication between investigators. Since they may have a different perception of the same question, full communication thus is indispensable. Third, time span. We conducted the survey over a course of six months rather than several days between 2016 and 2017.

Fourth, interview methods. The researchers conducted face-to-face interviews at various construction jobsites by randomly selecting migrant workers, asking elaborate questions, and documenting the responses. In view of migrant workers’ low education levels, we interviewed them individually to ensure the effectiveness of the questionnaires. Besides, we gathered the qualitative data by keeping a field journal, noting observations through respondents’ observation.

Fifth, survey Site and Representativeness. The researchers conducted this field survey in Shanghai city. In this city, many construction projects have been building and its wage is relatively higher, which attracts maximum migrant construction workers from across the country than other cities. This survey site choice can make us select workers who originally came from different parts of the country so as to ensure the representativeness of the sampling.

Sixth, project type and schedule. This study included housing, commercial, and infrastructure project types, which covers a variety of employment types. We avoided the beginning and end of project schedules, because workers typically do not leave employers but change work place during these times.

Seventh, participant numbers. There are three criteria to justify participant numbers. Firstly, it should consist of workers from different provinces. Secondly, it should cover construction project type and schedule. Thirdly, it should meet the quantity threshold for the logistics regression model. The survey thereby yielded 531 responses, which were analysed using the SPSS 19.0E software package.

Table 1 describes the sample characteristics using a frequency analysis. Of the respondents, 282 (53%) planned to move, 366 (69%) were over 40 years of age, 212 (40%) served for 5–15 years, 297 (56%) graduated from junior school, 314 (59%) earned 25–35$ in daily wages, 382 (72%) rated number of workmate as no more than 15, and 478 (90%) did not sign an employment contract with their employers.

5 Results

Most findings in this study are within the researchers’ expectation and reflect the current situation in this industry. However, the willingness of migrant workers is usually mediated by a combination of personal aspects and external surroundings, both of which change with time. The same migrant worker may experience varying willingness in different occasions or surroundings, as do different migrant workers in the same occasion or surroundings. In this study, the findings on migrant workers’ willingness to participate in training may become inconsistent with external changes in the construction industry. In fact, the government has been devoting itself to improving the climate of the construction industry toward healthy and sustainable development. In addition, migrant workers’ willingness is not only confined to improvements in the construction industry, but also encompasses national economic development, supply and demand of migrant workers, the social insurance, etc.

The present study makes some contributions in the following ways. Firstly, we have conducted a deep face-to-face interview with migrant construction workers, and acquired the comprehension of migrant workers’ work, life and psychology condition, and the regression results are close to the migrant workers’ real situation, which foster more contextualized comprehension of migrant construction workers’ job mobility phenomena in China. Secondly, less literatures have focused on migrant construction workers’ job mobility in the Chinese context, this study can narrow that gap. Combining the Chinese specificity (enormous size, population, regional development unbalance, cultural and geographical diversity) and consequent specificity of Chinese migrant construction workers, we make a conceptual contribution by differentiating the feature of migrant construction workers’ job change. Thirdly, some findings are applicable to other industries migrant workers clustered into, like mining, lumbering, even other Asia areas, like India.

We discuss the two limitations of this study and future research. First, the micro-level components in this study that analyse how to influence migrant construction workers’ willingness to move are not comprehensive. Future studies could examine migrant workers’ skill level and attitude toward job-hunting, mobility costs, mobility gains, and so on. Second, this study excluded macro-level components such as national economic status, migrant worker supply and demand, construction industry characteristics, employment culture, social security, and public welfare, amongst others.

We plan to prioritize these limitations in future research and include more micro- and macro-level aspects. By conducting an analysis that includes more than a single independent variable to examine the combined effects and investigating all potential ingredients, it will be possible to propose an optimal mobility rate, and illustrate and rank the marginal contribution of each independent variable.

7 Practical implication

This study focused on migrant construction workers and conducted interviews with 531 migrant workers to collect questionnaire data. A logistic regression model was then applied to investigate the individual aspects influencing migrant construction worker mobility. The results indicate that the work tenure, education, daily wages, job-hunting channels, number of workmates, and employment contracts can significantly influence migrant workers’ willingness to switch jobs. Age has some levels of but insignificant effect. Age shows an inverted-U shaped curve changing with migrant worker mobility, as does work tenure. Education and daily wages have positive relations with migrant construction worker mobility. In terms of the three main job-hunting channels, other workers also increase the willingness to leave for another job. The higher the numbers, the greater the probability that migrant workers decide to move. Signing an employment contract can weaken this tendency. Daily wages and work tenure make the greatest contribution to migrant workers’ willingness to change jobs, yet the effect of employment contract and education is minimal.

By legislating new rules and regulations, the government can play an important role in solving migrant construction workers’ frequent job change. Therefore, coupled with the above fingdings and our field survey, we propose the following suggestions for the government to improve the current state of job change in the construction industry.

First step: Setting up a higher entrance permitting mechanism for the migrant construction worker market. Before entering into the construction market, rural migrant labourers should be regulated to accept a limited duration training course and achieve basic techniques, and be granted an entrance qualification after being examined by a certification agency. A higher entrance permitting mechanism forces rural migrant labourers to decide discreetly whether to enter or quit, which initially helps to develop their identity as skilled migrant construction workers.

Second step: banning the gangmaster. Usually, most migrant construction workers have little ability to obtain employment information, but gangmaster can do it, and entitle to recruit or fire workers, determine wage rate and pay workers on his idea, which should have been undertaken by labour subcontractor firm according to the relevant law. In order to attract or dismiss migrant workers according to the construction schedule, gangmaster would raise or cut down wage rate, so that most migrant workers are forced to change job. Banning the gangmaster and promoting labour subcontractor firm to sign up the employment with migrant workers should be taken to control workers’ mobility willingness.

Third step: setting up the fair wage rate and new payment arrangement. In reality, migrant workers only accept the offered wage rate by gangmater, which is personal and circumstantial, and wait negatively to be paid after their gangmaster is paid by his labour subcontractor firm, which results in the unfair wage rate in the same region, and store up the risk of wage arrearage to migrant workers. Pursuing the higher wage rate and securing the payment is one of main reason for migrant workers to change job. Therefore, with a combined consideration of worker’s ability or qualification, job characteristics, and regional development, government should determine the fair wage rate, and develop a new salary payment arrangement so as to relieve workers’ apprehension about wage arrearage.

Fourth step: Advancing the professionalism of skilled migrant construction workers. Professionalism indicates that migrant workers have developed their identity as skilled migrant construction workers and have become professionals. At this point, they consider themselves to be “full-time” rather than “part-time” migrant workers and are faithful to their careers, responsible in their work, and readily attend regular training courses to polish skill. Moreover, China’s population is undergoing severe ageing and a shortage of migrant workers is about to threaten the development of the construction industry. Professionalism can secure the sustenance of employability, transforming the source of targeted migrant workers from rural surplus laborers to graduates of middle and high schools.