China's National Bureau of Statistics released a report on Thursday, April 28 showing that the rate of the growth of migrant workers dropped by 0.6 percent in 2015. There was also a decrease in the rate of young workers under 40 years old, dropping 1.3 percent and ending with a 55.2 percent growth.

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The report showed that the average age of the workers is 38.6, around four months older than the average age of workers in 2014.

A migrant worker is a person who is registered in a rural area but works outside their hometown for more than six months.

The decreasing rate of migrant workers may be attributed to the slow growth of income. The report revealed that the average monthly salary of migrant workers is around 3,072 yuan ($472) with an annual growth rate of 7.6 percent, decreasing 2.6 points. Meanwhile, income in the manufacturing industry decreased by 6.7 percent and the construction industry decreased by 4.4 percent.

There was an increase of 0.3 percent in the rate of signing short-term contracts. Short-term contracts are job agreements that last less than a year. Also, 36.2 percent of migrant workers signed contracts with their employers last year, down from 38 percent in 2014.

"We have also noticed there are fewer young workers. Most of our workers are between 40 and 50 years old," Cui Hao, the Deputy Director of the Overseas Engineering Company of China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Co told China Daily. "It seems that the younger generation is less willing to do heavy physical labor, even though income in the construction industry is higher."

Cui noted that small-scale construction companies do not have any contracts, increasing the risk of not getting paid on time.

TagsMigrant Workers Decreases, Migrant Workers in China, National Bureau of Statistics, migrant workers, Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Co