The phenomenon of the shortage of rural workers is a response of labor market to rapid
export growth and economic growth after China became a WTO member. It not only
indicates a transition of China’s rural surplus labor forces from unlimited supply to limited
surplus, but also highlights the urgent need for an integrated national labor market to solve
the structural issue of segregated local labor markets. Industry shift provides an option for
China to alleviate the pressure of increasing labor cost on the competitiveness of
manufacturing industry. Deepening Hukou system reform and speeding-up the construction
of labor market system has very important implications to the mobility and efficiency of
China’s labor market.