Job-Search Channels of Migrant Workers in Large Chinese Cities: A Case Study of Shanghai*

In the process of urbanization in China, a large number of migrant workers from underdeveloped regions, especially rural areas, flow to economically developed regions and cities to search for employment opportunities. Their job search is facilitated by a large number of labor market intermediaries that exist in cities, as well as abundant recruitment information from the Internet or other media and various types of job fairs. This study, based on a survey of migrant workers in Shanghai, examines the patterns and determinants of migrant workers’ job-search approaches after their arrival. It focuses on the influence of migrants’ personal characteristics and prior experiences of migration and employment on their choice among labor market intermediaries and personal social networks as compared to those who found jobs without any assistance. The results show that nearly half of migrant workers find jobs through personal social networks and a further 29.0 percent find jobs through labor market intermediaries. The results also show that those who are male, lowly educated, and recently arrived tend to use labor market intermediaries to find jobs, and those who are female and have been in the city for a long time or whose origin is near Shanghai tend to use social networks to find jobs. Our results suggest that migrant workers are heterogeneous in terms of labor market experiences and that lowly skilled and newly arrived migrants occupy an inferior position in the urban labor market.