But it was very labor intensive.

It's a big labor intensive effort.

Here's something that's far more labor intensive, which is the making of shoes.

Many might doubt the view that China is exporting more labor intensive goods, rather than upgrading its exports on the capital and skill intensity ladder. But trade data suggest the opposite, perhaps because China s accession to the WTO led to tariff reductions that released more labor intensive production.

As a result, these labor intensive sectors must release a lot of labor and capital, which push into the capital intensive export sectors that are better able to cope with high wages. But, while these sectors therefore grow especially fast, their high capital intensity means that they cannot fully employ the released labor, with the result that some of the unemployed workers have nowhere to turn but the welfare state.

When costs for labor intensive goods and services became too high in these countries, production was shifted elsewhere. This relocation of manufacturing has since been accompanied by the off shoring of services whose information intensive components have become tradable.

When costs for labor intensive goods and services became too high in these countries, production was shifted elsewhere. This relocation of manufacturing has since been accompanied by the off shoring of services whose information intensive components have become tradable.

It's extremely time consuming, labor intensive and it is something that is going to involve a lot more people, to begin to piece together our past.

These figures are only the early warnings of an emerging trend. In the long run, as labor shortages become acute, China will need to relinquish some low end, labor intensive manufacturing activities, which will translate into decelerating export performance and lower economic growth.

Looking back, it is ironic that the Chinese government s draconian one child policy, imposed in 1979, was implemented at the same time as the open door policy, aimed at capturing labor intensive foreign manufacturing investment. While both policies must be regarded as successes, over the years the family planning program has contributed to an aging population that may diminish China s attractiveness as a low cost, labor intensive manufacturing hub.

Over the next decade, for example, China will replace much of its labor intensive assembly employment with higher value added employment in manufacturing and services, not only in the tradable sector, but also even more noticeably in the rapidly growing non tradable part of its economy. The expanding scope and diminishing costs of automation and additive manufacturing may affect labor intensive functions globally, including in earlier stage developing countries.

These adverse conditions have inadvertently propelled a long delayed restructuring of China s labor intensive industries. As costs surge, Chinese producers are seeking higher value, new niches, and more influence over policymaking.

But manufacturing today is not what it used to be. It has become much more capital and skill intensive, with greatly diminished potential to absorb large amounts of labor from the countryside.

Reconstruction constitutes a special kind of public works project. The disposal of rubble, given its labor intensive character, has a particularly marked effect on job creation, at least in the short term.

These countries had already lost export market shares to China and other low value added and labor intensive Asian economies. Then a decade of nominal wage growth that out paced productivity gains led to a rise in unit labor costs, real exchange rate appreciation, and large current account deficits.

Developing countries in the early stages of growth need to understand these trends. Labor, no matter how inexpensive, will become a less important asset for growth and employment expansion, with labor intensive, process oriented manufacturing becoming a less effective way for early stage developing countries to enter the global economy.

According to the 12th Five Year Plan, the minimum wage should grow by 13 per year. Together with real appreciation, the increase in labor costs is bound to weaken the competitiveness of China s labor intensive export sector, which will be reflected in the trade balance more clearly in the coming years.

These are economies that, even a decade ago, were losing market share to China and Asia, owing to their labor intensive and low value added exports. After a decade that saw wages grow faster than productivity, unit labor costs (and the real exchange rate based on those costs) appreciated sharply.

Production will not vanish it will just be less labor intensive. All countries will eventually need to rebuild their growth models around digital technologies and the human capital that supports their deployment and expansion.

German firms reacted by outsourcing the labor intensive parts of their production chains and curtailing their investment in Germany. The share of net investment in GNP is now the second lowest in all OECD countries.

Services are in many respects the infrastructure of a consumer society in China s case, providing the basic utilities, communications, retail outlets, health care, and finance that its emerging middle class is increasingly demanding. They are also labor intensive in China, services require about 30 more jobs per unit of output than do capital intensive manufacturing and construction.

China itself has benefited from today s open international trade and investment regime, which allows firms to locate production where it is most beneficial for their international competitiveness and is now beginning to shed labor intensive industries itself.

China itself has benefited from today s open international trade and investment regime, which allows firms to locate production where it is most beneficial for their international competitiveness and is now beginning to shed labor intensive industries itself.

Water is energy intensive.

For several years, Greece drew on the EU s aptly named structural funds and on loans from German and French banks to finance a wide array of highly labor intensive projects. Employment and incomes soared, and savings piled up.

A rebalanced China can grow more slowly for one simple reason By drawing increased support from services led consumer demand, China s new model will embrace a more labor intensive growth recipe. The numbers seem to bear that out.

Services led growth is, in many ways, the antidote to the unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated, and ultimately unsustainable growth model that former Premier Wen Jiabao s famously criticized in 2007. Yet services offer more than just a labor intensive growth path.

It 's less computationally intensive.

Intensive farming is depleting soils.

The result is a de facto separation between news and everything else. This conveniently allows the authorities to control news programming with an iron hand while relegating the bulk of programming to a looser and less labor intensive monitoring system.

Japan seized its opportunity in the years following World War II, using labor intensive industries, such as textiles and simple electronics, to drive its economy until rising labor costs eroded its comparative advantage in those sectors. That shift then allowed other low income Asian economies South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and to some extent Malaysia and Thailand to follow in Japan's footsteps.

With developing countries in particular, China, India, and the ex Soviet bloc bringing almost 1.5 billion workers into the world economy since the early 1990 s, it is not difficult to understand the potential impact of this effect. After all, much of this labor force was absorbed by labor intensive industries that eventually churned out products exported to the rest of the world.

They graze everything down, intensive grazing.

The IDR process is resource intensive.

Using RMB appreciation as the primary tool to fight inflation implies accepting a temporarily higher unemployment rate now in exchange for a permanently lower unemployment rate in the future. This is because manufactured exports are typically more labor intensive than investment projects.

Developing countries also need access for the unskilled labor intensive services in which they have a comparative advantage. These were off the agenda in earlier trade rounds, as the US pushed for liberalization of financial services thus serving its own comparative advantage.

That may be an extreme example, but it illustrates a more general point about how merchandise trade can influence financial flows. Countries that produce and export more labor intensive goods perhaps owing to increased trade openness, or faster labor force and productivity growth, all of which are true of China may experience a rise in saving, but a less than equivalent increase in demand for capital.

But it also skews decisions in favour of capital intensive enterprise and away from labour intensive activities more likely to benefit the poor.

They are often very productive by hectare, since they maximize the use of the soil, and achieve the best complementary use of plants and animals. But the form of agriculture that they practice, which relies less on external inputs and mechanization, is highly labor intensive.

And, while military innovation has been spectacular, it is still very labor intensive. If people want the same level of government services relative to other things that they consume, government spending will take up a larger and larger share of national output over time.

Ninth, establish economic reconstruction zones to jump start sustainable economic activity, create jobs and export earnings, improve aid effectiveness and accountability, and avoid aid dependency. The zones could combine integrated rural development for domestic consumption and labor intensive manufacturing and agro businesses for export.

The governance structure of INFOCAP is resource intensive.

Recent technological advances have three biases They tend to be capital intensive (thus favoring those who already have financial resources) skill intensive (thus favoring those who already have a high level of technical proficiency) and labor saving (thus reducing the total number of unskilled and semi skilled jobs in the economy). The risk is that robotics and automation will displace workers in blue collar manufacturing jobs before the dust of the Third Industrial Revolution settles.

Reuters quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry as saying that China and Pakistan would strengthen the pragmatic cooperation in trade and investment and enhance Pakistani industrial capacity by establishing joint ventures in priority fields, transferring labor intensive industries and developing the cooperation of small and medium sized enterprises .

When China s labor intensive industries emerge from their metamorphosis, we should expect to see firms that are larger, that invest more in product innovation and design, and that hold more sway over business and trade policies. So Made in China is not losing international dominance yet.