The Devil finds work for idle hands is a quote that I (and others) talk about when discussing China’s labor market.  It is not so much a matter of if there will be problems from large scale layoffs, just a matter of how big the problems would be.

So, when reading the recent AFP article Laid-off workers in China say prospects grim I took interest in the paragraph:

Laid-off migrant workers said job prospects elsewhere in southern China looked grim as soaring prices for raw materials and shrinking demand from the crisis-hit US and European economies squeeze manufacturers in the region.

“We thought about going to Shenzhen or even Shanghai. But then factories are also closing down in those places,” Song Xiaoguan, 25

Surely an issue the central party is going to be keenly aware of, for many in China who have left their families to work in the city, a lot is at stake.