China’s labour shortage is expected to spread from coastal regions to central and western parts of the country, according to the human resources minister Yin Weimin.

His comments were echoed by Xu Shousheng, governor of central Hunan province, who told China Daily: “It is not only difficult for eastern coastal areas to recruit workers. We are facing the same problem… However, the labour crunch here is less severe.”

Mr Xu said that more than 12m people typically leave Hunan each year in search of work, but he estimated that total would be 500,000-800,000 fewer this year as more people take up job opportunities closer to home.

The labour shortage will persist over the next five years as the economy restructures, said Cai Fang, director of the Institute of Population and Labour Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. After decades of economic growth driven by cheap labour and intensive energy use, China wants to make the economy more technology-dependant and boost domestic consumption.

“In the process, we need to step up vocational training for migrant workers so that they can keep up with the industrial restructuring,” Mr Cai said.

Mr Yin also highlighted the problem of a rapidly ageing population, which poses a huge challenge to the pension system. There are 170m people over the age of 60, making up 12.8 per cent of the population.