The NYT reports that "China has a rapidly aging society that demographers warn could present significant problems. Already, the work force is defying the popular impression that the labor supply is endless. Factories have reported shortages of young workers in recent years." What's the problem here? There is not literally a shortage of young workers, as the paper claims. The problem is that firms would have to raise their pay rate, which they don't want to do. China is not close to being short of labor in the sense that it doesn't have enough people to do what needs to be done. Wages are rising rapidly, which is what should happen in a developing country. This may put some factory owners out of business, but who cares? No one promised them that they could make money on their business. In short there is no reason presented here for China to be concerned about having too few people.
--Dean Baker
