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ANCHOR:
Thousands of migrant workers have arrived back in Guangdong Province from their annual spring break. But as the world economy slows down the workers are feeling a little anxious about their employment prospects this year.

STORY:
Many are desperate here to find or keep their jobs. Factories are stopping production or shutting down due to a serious export slowdown.

Dongguan is Guangdong’s leading center for labor-intensive industries. But these export factories have been hard-hit by the plunge in global demand for China-made goods.

But despite the gloomy outlook some of the migrant workers arriving here have hope.

This 25-year-old factory worker is one of the estimated 20 million workers determined to find new work.

[Hu Meng-Meng, Migrant Worker]:
“I heard many people say that due to the financial crisis, it’s difficult to find a job anywhere.”

But vast numbers of workers are still pouring in despite the bleak job prospects.

In the town of Changan — known for its electronics and light-manufacturing industries, some factories, are remaining chained up with “for rent” signs posted outside.

And for poorer workers unable to afford the rising fees at job centers the only way is a door-to-door approach.

[Xie Fuyuan, Migrant Worker]:
“In the previous years, factories would open on the fourth day of new year, that’s why I came here earlier this year. This year is different from last year. Before, as long as someone showed up, you could get a job. But this year, it’s not possible. They (the factories) choose people with much tighter requirements.”

February and March are shaping up as the most critical periods for China’s export enterprises.

If orders fall by 20 percent, another 10-20 million could be laid off.

And this could mean rising social tensions among the masses here in the world’s most populous nation.

Duration : 0:1:47

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Here in the outskirts of China’s financial capital, Shanghai, it is the country’s migrant workers who will bear the brunt of falling demand in major markets in Europe and North America.

This year, many have left for home early and may not come back to work in the factories, which are being shut down. But some have chosen not to return home and are looking to save their money and hoping for better luck in the new year.

Thirty-three-year-old Xu Manxiang (pron: she-man-sheeang) has just been laid off from his job at a nearby electronics factory.

[Xu Manxiang, Unemployed]:
“I am feeling the impact now that I have lost my job. Due to the economic crisis, it can be quite costly to go home for the Chinese New Year. After thinking about it, I felt I should be more thrifty and spend less money. The main thing is that we thought we should spend less money and try to ride out this crisis.”
    
Xu is one of around 200 million migrant workers in China, whose number is greater than the population of Brazil. They have provided the cheap labor underpinning the proliferation of China-made goods worldwide. An estimated 10 million migrant workers have lost their jobs in recent months.

The Xu family says that if things get worse they will be ready to pack their bags and go home for good.

[Wu Xiongjin, Xu's Wife]:
“Some of them said that if orders are less next year, the factory might lay off some workers. I think that if they retrench me and give me compensation, I would go home to work at a farm or do something else while I tend to my child. Now if all of a sudden, I leave due to my own will, I wouldn’t feel too good about it. I’ll think about this after the Chinese New Year.”

With the New Year on January 26, thousands of migrant workers are waiting patiently to buy tickets with heavy hearts, many wondering whether they will return.

Duration : 0:2:13

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Improved demand for electronic goods saw technology shares rally in Asia. Tech-heavy Taiwan has been one of the best-performing stock markets in the world this year. And Taiwan shares are leading the rise across Asia as companies such as chipmaker UMC jump on signs of improved demand. Japan’s Nikkei also gained today after the government announced a bigger-than-expected stimulus package of $154 billion—that’s about 3 percent of Japan’s GDP. The spending package will target eco-friendly electronics, giving a boost to companies like Sony and Panasonic. And some of the economic data form the region also provided hope for a recovery. Japanese core machinery orders posted a surprising increase of 1.4 percent. But over in Australia, there’s been a slowdown. Data shows that the country shed jobs at the fastest pace in six years, while unemployment jumped by the most since 1991.

Duration : 0:1:2

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STORY:
Sony announced it will cut almost three billion dollars in costs by 2010 and consolidate two LCD TV plants in Japan into one, that move alone shedding 1,000 contract staff.

The electronics maker stunned investors by posting of a three billion dollar operating loss, its biggest ever, due to what Sony’s chief executive Howard Stringer called the depression.

[Howard Stringer, Sony Chief Executive]:
“We’re in the worst economic depression in my life time; economic recession, we’re not supposed to call it a depression yes, but it feels depressing, and that’s that’s my primary responsibility and whereas we are anticipating a high profit in October, but we’ve obviously lost a lot. We have to move in a hurry and that’s our responsibility and my trame.”

Last month Sony laid out restructuring plans which included curbing investment, closing plants and cutting 16,000 jobs – this figure is now expected to rise as Sony makes further savings.

Trade within East Asia has collapsed as global demand for goods such as cars and electronics shrivels, prompting leading manufacturers to slash production at an unprecedented rate and lay off workers.

Carmaker Hyundai says its quarterly earnings fell 28 percent and LG Electronics lost half a billion dollars due to big shortfalls at its flat-screens and weak mobile phone sales.

In another sign of the crunch in the tech sector, Intel Corp is closing plants in Malaysia and the Philippines, along with its remaining factory in Silicon Valley, cutting around 6,000 jobs.

Unsurprisingly, Japanese exports plunged a record 35 percent in December year on year battered not only by falling demand but also a soaring yen which rose to a 13 and a half year high against the dollar.

In China annual economic growth slowed to a seven-year low of nine percent, ending a five-year-streak of double-digit growth.

And neighboring South Korea is heading for its first recession since the regional financial crisis a decade ago after its economy contracted sharply last quarter.

But despite the dismal data, Asian stocks rose as investors snapped up beaten down bank shares and pinned their hopes on policy action to support growth.

Duration : 0:2:20

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The financial crisis has slammed demand for memory-hungry gadgets like PCs
and digital cameras, with chip prices falling around 90 percent in the last 18
months. Memory chip makers, battered by falling prices and electronics
demand, look for bank and government aid in the worst industry downturn
ever.
Asian chipmakers have been battered by falling prices and electronic goods
demand, but shares of Hynix Semiconductor jumped Wednesday on ideas of
imminent aid.

Top shareholder Korea Exchange Bank and other lenders are in talks with the
DRAM chip giant to provide about $560 million in fresh funds, allowing it to
stay afloat.

The rare good news comes as the financial crisis hits demand for
memory-hungry gadgets like PCs and digital cameras, creating the worst chip
downturn in history.

Shares of firms like Hynix have plummeted about 70 percent this year, while
the price of 1 gigabit of memory has fallen from over $6 to around 61 cents in
the last 18 months.

Rival Samsung, the world No.1 in DRAM and NAND flash memory, is expected to
post losses but gain market share as other firms struggle.

Toshiba, the No.2 NAND player, is halting chip production at two plants for
over a week, the first such move in seven years, while planning to
restructure.

Others, such as ProMos, the smallest of Taiwan’s top three DRAM makers, are
applying for government istance amid the downturn, lifting shares
Wednesday.

Duration : 0:1:33

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ZHANG:
Economic meltdown is having a mixed effect on the sale of luxury brands in India. The crisis has put a dent in consumers’ spending power.

STORY:
Ajit Joshi, the CEO and marketing director of Chroma, a consumer electronics retail chain has some positive views on this global situation.

[Ajit Joshi, Chroma CEO]:
“As far as my knowledge of economics is concerned, there is no recession in the country when you have 5 percent year on year growth in your GDP. Recession happens only when you start showing the negative role. There is a slowdown but it has not come to ‘Chroma’ (a retail brand) as yet. It has come to certain pockets of the industries. The builders and their community are rolling out of the stores. We see a little slowdown coming in to the real estate but we haven’t seen the slowdown coming in to the sales.”

The slowdown of the economy has adversely affected a few big brands across Mumbai.

But mostly the bigger brands are coping with the situation and waiting for a stable economy. They are coming up with new shopping outlets like ‘The Loot’, but somewhere their sales have gone down, too.

[Jay Gupta, The Loot Retail Limited]:
“The industry as such is getting badly affected. In retail the footwalls are coming down, in the malls the footwalls are coming down. Lot of lifestyle chains and restaurants are getting hit badly. But at this time, I feel we have a model which is a value retailing model and if you have limited funds basically you cannot stop eating or wearing clothes, it’s a need of human being and we are here to give you the best offers. So we are selling jeans at rupees 500, a trouser at rupees 500 and a shirt at rupees 300. So somehow this has been working positive for us.”

Although the recession has affected everyone’s lives, some people dont seem to have stopped buying as such. They are waiting for the economy to stablize.

[Sanjay Kshetri, Customer]:
“Recession is a part of our life now in the present condition. It is a global recession and we can’t just keep ourselves out of this. But I think to some extent it has affected my personal life as well and so we can’t just ignore it.”

The Indian luxury goods market was once thought immune to the ebbs and flows of economic fluctuations. But it has finally begun to feel the heat of the worldwide economic slowdown.

Duration : 0:2:25

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