China's strength in manufacturing goods (1/2)
Channel: World Bank Group Jobs
Date: 2012-06-22

Cai Fang, Director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, discusses China's strength in manufacturing goods.

He says China's main advantage in manufacturing is the sheer size of its population and labor force, which means no other individual countries or group of countries can completely replace the country's position in producing manufactured goods.

In addition, Fang says Chinese workers have relatively high human capital compared to the workforces in other countries. This is due to a higher-than-average education level for even semi-skilled workers in labor-intensive industries. These workers typically have at least a junior high school education. Therefore, even though other countries have large workforces, it takes time to match the human capital of China's workers.