Err, how does one say this? Where have all the migrant workers gone?

We seem to have lost a vast swathe of the nation's lifeblood since the end of Spring Festival, sparking a shortage of workers in key industries across the country.

In just a few weeks since the start of the Year of the Rabbit, the landscape of China's labor market has been transformed. At a cursory glance, it paints a picture of a land with too many jobs and not enough workers, resulting in a wage war between employers desperate to fill vacancies from a depleted workforce.