Nationwide, the Chinese government estimates that the number of jobless migrants looking for work may reach 26 million — a gargantuan figure even by Chinese standards, greater than the population of Texas. Some of them returned home to lush but poorer places like Bamboo Pole that largely missed out on China’s economic boom of the past two decades, forcing officials in Beijing and elsewhere to find a way to reincorporate them into the labor force — or face possibly dramatic consequences.

The average income for Chinese farmers is about $690 a year — less than a third of what is paid in urban areas. The shortage of well-paying jobs explains why as many as half of the laborers in Bamboo Pole, population 50,000, decided to seek factory jobs — and why their return is so problematic now.

[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-02-16-chinamigrants_N.htm?csp=34 “Read the Article”) (USA Today)