CHINA's manufacturing recovery, fueled in part by demand from Covid-constrained consumers abroad, has soared past expectations this year, so much so that factories are now struggling to fill a shortage of blue-collar workers to clear mounting orders, Reuters reports.

The country's output of industrial robots, computer equipment, and integrated circuits has roared back from its coronavirus paralysis - production for the year to November is up 22.2 per cent, 10.1 and 15.9 per cent respectively.

Government data shows that in November there were more people employed in the industrial sector in Jinhua city, which includes the eastern export hub of Yiwu, than there had been at any time since end-2017.

"We laid off about 50 workers in the first half, and now with orders soaring, we're short of staff and not able to further ramp up production," said Deng Jinling, who owns a thermal flask factory in Yiwu, selling to the Middle East, United States and Europe. "We tried hiring dozens of temporary workers but they're not good enough," said Mr Deng.