PERCEIVED CHANGE OF LABOR COST IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES OF CHINA: EVIDENCE FROM HEBEI PROVINCE

Rich labor resources and relatively low labor cost are the main contributors to the competitive advantages of China, but in recent years, labor costs of China continue to increase. Aiming at systematically study the perceptions of the manufacturing enterprises on the change of labor cost, a questionnaire undertaken in 200 manufacturing enterprises in Hebei province was used in this research to collect data. And descriptive analysis and one-way ANOVA were applied to analyze the perceived change of labor cost and to compare the differences among enterprises. The results show that among the four major components of labor cost, the perceived change of social insurance cost is greatest, and followed by wage, job training cost and welfare cost. We also found that there are significant differences in the perceived change of wage, social insurance cost and job training cost among different sized enterprises. As for enterprises with different ownerships, significant differences only exist in wage, social insurance cost and welfare cost.