By Ji Jing

W hen Li Bingjian went to work in Fujian， he was struck by the prosperity of the coastal province. He was from Sichuan， a mountainous province where the rural areas were still underdeveloped， and for years he had worked in different industries as an unskilled laborer without much success. So after stints in the construction industry and at a salt factory， he went to Fujian to work on a chicken farm.

That was back in the 1990s. The farm brought stability in his wandering life and taught him skills. He learned how to raise chickens using modern technology and was eventually promoted as a manager at the farm. By that time， he had been away from home for nearly two decades and he longed to go back. Then he learned a friend in his village was planning to start a chicken farm there and he asked if he could join in the venture.

The friend said yes. In 2017， Li was back in his hometown and supported by the local government， rented a plot of land to start the farm. He borrowed all the money he could and invested the entire amount， together with his savings.

In four years， thanks to the knowledge and experience he had acquired in Fujian plus the supportive local government policies， the farm had expanded well beyond expectations and provided jobs to over 100 local people.

“Returning home means I now have a career and at the same time can look after my family，” a happy Li， now 42， told Farmer.com.

Lis return and transformation from a lowskilled laborer into a successful entrepreneur is an example of one of the trends indicated by the 2020 Migrant Workers Monitoring Survey Report released on April 30.

The report， published by the National Bureau of Statistics （NBS）， indicates a sizeable drop in the number of migrant workers. The survey recorded 285.6 million migrant workers in 2020， which was 5.17 million fewer than in 2019， a 1.8-percent reduction year on year， the first decline in recent years.

Factors at work

Wu Shuai， an associate researcher with the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science， explained the reasons behind the decline in the number in a report in Peoples Daily.

Increasing urbanization， which has changed the population of rural areas， is a major factor. Migrant workers refer to people who are registered in rural areas and work in non-agricultural industries locally or travel to urban areas to work there for over six months in a year.

However， with accelerated urbanization， over 100 million rural residents obtained registration in urban areas during the 13th Five-Year Plan （2016-20） period. It meant they， as permanent urban residents， can now enjoy public services in the cities where they live and work， no longer having to move to other places in search of jobs.