The article is dedicated to the problem of a shortage of workers in the real sector of the PRC economy, primarily in material production. Analysis of the current trend shows that Chinese youth are not ready to work in low-paid jobs. It is noted that the discrepancy between the needs and social aspirations of people in society and the relatively backward material production, work on which is considered hard and low-paid, has gradually matured, intensified during the period of the beginning of economic reforms manifesting in full force in modern society. A main reasons for the current socio-economic problem is associated with the unresolved contradiction between labor demand and supply in the Chinese socio-economic system. It is concluded that there is a need to further align education system and the needs of the market, in particular, to create a professional training system for highly qualified personnel urgently required in the economy, to develop existing talents in new industries, such as information security, software development, network engineering, communication engineering, new energy vehicles, etc.