By Zhou Zhuben & Li Xiaojuan

Several days ago, I returned to my hometown and noticed something a bit odd: my neighbor’s live-in son-inlaw who had come back during the Tomb Sweeping Festival had gone out again for a job. It wasn’t just him; most of the villagers there had left after the festival for a jobsite somewhere else.

The silkworm industry in my hometown was much better than it had been for the past while, and more than a few of the peasants were making real money; they were purchasing refrigerators,motorcycles and the like in droves with their government subsidies.All of which showed that, to some extent, an economic thaw had taken place.

I had been waiting in line after line for several days trying to process my application for a mortgage, and standing there in the queue at the Housing Administration I noticed among all the hustle and bustle that, of the many kinds of people standing there in that giant hall lining up to get a license, most were elderly men and women, and middleagers. The number of young thirty-somethings like me was so miniscule it almost wasn’t worth mentioning.

If many of the people standing in line for a house in the sales office could just be hired hands there putting on a show, it wouldn’t be the case for the Housing Administration, for the clerks are virtually issuing property ownership certificates on the site.

To me it meant that, with such high housing prices, there were still tremendous demands for real estate, and the source of most sales revenues were still from the life savings of middle-agers or senior citizens, as young people just didn’t have the requisite financial wherewithal.

I have a niece who learned the art of cakery at a vocational school and is in Shanghai doing internship. Finding a job is not a problem, and when she goes fulltime her salary won’t be low. In contrast, her elder sister who is studying economic management at a university is going to graduate in a year but her job prospects are looking pretty bleak. Her younger brother is studying at an automotive school, and many a 4S car dealership is clamoring to hire the graduates from his school.

When I’m recruiting seasonal workers for my farm, I have to take into account how I will pay their salary. Ifipay by the hour,based on an eight hour workday,the minimum payment wouldn’t be lower than 50 yuan per day. Ificalculate it by their yield, then these temporary hires might clear 60 to 80 yuan per day. If it were anything less than this number, they would rather sit at home playing Mahjong and would be extremely reluctant to come out and break their back for starvation wages.

前几天回了一趟老家，我注意到一个事实：清明时分回到邻居家的浙江籍上门女婿，又出去打工了。而且不止他一家，大部分返回来的人，又都外出打工了。

在老家，今年养蚕的行市，比往年来得更好一些，很多农民都在赚钱，还有不少人用国家发给农民的补贴买了冰箱、摩托车等。这说明，经济确实在一定程度上有所回暖。

前几天办理房屋贷款手续，在房管局办证大厅排队等候的时候，我发现人头攒动，瞄了几眼，大致把大厅里办证的形形色色的人分成几等：老头老太太占了大半，中年人又占了很大一部分，年轻人很少，像我这样三十多岁的，少得可怜。

如果说在售楼处排队的人很大一部分可能是被雇来作秀的，那么在房管局实实在在地办证，应该没有什么人是被雇来唱戏的。

这起码说明房价虽然高，但交易还是很多，现在房地产的销售资金来源，很大一部分是中老年人用了自己大半辈子的积蓄，年轻人基本还不具备购房的条件。

我有个侄女在技校学蛋糕制作，现在正在上海实习，就业不是问题，转正以后，薪水也不会太低。相反，她的姐姐，正在高校学经济管理，明年毕业以后就业堪忧。她的弟弟，在汽车学校学习，很多汽车4S店都抢着要他们那里的毕业生。

我的农场，在找劳动力打零工的时候，如果按照每天工作8小时计算，最低工资不低于50元。如果按照计件来算，很多临时工每天都能拿到60元到80元。要是低于这个数字，人家宁可在家里打麻将，也懒得出来赚这份辛苦钱。……