China's Fortune Cookie: A Foreign Friend Will Give You a Job Opportunity

What does your fortune cookie say? If you’re a manufacturer or a job seeker in China, it has a lot of good things to say. The current trade deficit between the U.S. and China now stands at $232 billion dollars. Yes, you read that right. China’s manufacturers couldn’t be happier about it. The demand for products from consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere has given them a “red hot” economy. China is now beginning to understand what the “American dream” is all about.

Manufacturers aren’t the only ones that are happy in China. China’s workforce is heir to some of the money being made from the demand for their products too. Opportunities for jobs have never been better in China.  But, are workers in China happy just to have a job? According to reports about workers there, that appears to be less true than it used to be.

China’s workers are growing tired of making on average of .50 an hour or about $100 a month. They’re now pushing for union wages and some of American’s largest corporations are listening.  Last year, workers in China forced Walmart to let them form a union. This year,  Shanghai’s workers told McDonald’s “we expect more from you” too. McDonald’s too has buckled under the demands of China’s workforce and they have now agreed to allow unions in the 750 restaurants they currently have there. -  “McDonald’sTo Allow More Unionizing in China”, N.Y. Times, David Barboza, April 19, 2007 -

 

So what are Americans buying from China’s Manufacturers?

• Clothing: 70 - 75% of clothing in the U.S. comes from China.
• Consumer electronics, housewares, & furniture: If China is not the main supplier, it is one of the top suppliers.
• Shoes: 70% of the shoes sold in American stores are made in China.
• Toys: Almost every toy sold in the U.S. comes from China.
• Walmart: Imports nearly $20 billion dollars in goods from China. (Walmart buys goods from 70 countries including China)