Job satisfaction has been proved to be negatively correlated with labor mobility
(Freeman, 1977). China faces a huge labor shortage and this problem worsens as migrant
workers stay at their home provinces. This paper examines job satisfaction and its determinants
among Chinese rural-urban migrant workers. This analysis is based on a number of previous
theoretical and empirical studies. Data is used from the Chinese Household Income Project
(CHIP) 2002 Rural-urban Migrant Household Survey. Migrant workers? job satisfaction is
proved to be much more sensitive to expected future income, and this paper ascertains the
positive relations between expected future income and job satisfaction. Unlike previous studies,
this paper finds that the greater the geographical distance is between a rural-urban migrant
worker? home province and current working province, the lower the migrant worker? job
satisfaction. However, the job satisfaction can be augmented if migrant workers have many
friends in their working cities. Additionally, migrant workers? job satisfaction is an inverted
U-shaped curve in educational attainment. Being discriminated against by urban workers lowers
migrant workers? job satisfaction. This study carries some policy implications – softening
institutional restrictions, enhancing the enforcement of the Labor Law, and emphasizing
education in rural China – which may abbreviate the rift of the great labor shortage