"My boss said that I could take a long holiday, but it will be very hard to make a decent living."

Liang said he will have a good rest before deciding whether to return to Guangdong or look for work elsewhere.

A ticket seller surnamed Guan at Guangzhou East station, said that over the past few weeks there had been a marked increase in the number of migrant workers heading home to Chongqing municipality, Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei provinces.

Liang Jiamin, an official with the Guangdong labor department, said yesterday: "Many workers have lost their jobs or gone without pay as a result of firms going bust or downsizing their operations.

"Labor and social security departments across the province, especially those based in the Pearl River Delta region, have been told to do all they can to help people get the money they are owed," he said.

"We are also trying to help people to find new jobs," Liang said.

In the third quarter of this year, the number of job vacancies in Guangdong fell by almost 17 percent year on year to 2.1 million, he said.

(China Daily November 7, 2008)