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Economics
Apr 27, 2026
Chinese policymakers long viewed workers’ grueling schedules as a byproduct of industrial catch-up. But this has become untenable: if Chinese workers are to become middle-class consumers and build larger families, they cannot be spending most of their waking hours chasing overtime pay, only to return exhausted to dormitories.
Source:
www.project-syndicate.org
CANBERRA—China’s government wants to strengthen domestic consumption, encourage family formation, increase fertility, and achieve more balanced growth. But a major barrier is impeding progress on all these fronts: Chinese non-agricultural workers currently work some 2,500 hours per year, and hundreds of millions of blue-collar workers, largely rural-to-urban migrants, work nearly 3,000. That is nearly 60 hours per week—a schedule that leaves little time for consumption, relationships, or family-building.