超过两亿三千万的农民工劳动力是中国经济的引擎。然而，该国严苛的户籍制度（“户口”制度）导致的教育、医疗及其他社会服务的缺失，迫使存款数量大幅上升，阻碍了北京方面将增长中心从投资向消费的转移。
中国人口和计划生育委员会在其最新一期的年度报告中称：“给予居住在城市的流动人口永久居住权，并且为他们提供平等的基础公共服务，将会强烈刺激中国的消费增长。”
很多经济学家认为，消费驱动型增长是比中国一直以来实行的投资拉动型增长更加稳定的发展模式。国际货币基金组织称，后者会造成产能过剩以及效率低下等问题。
北京方面将消费增长视为下一个时间段中国增长的主要动力。过去三十年的大规模城市化，使约六亿人脱离贫困，并且将中国的出口加工工厂转变为新的世界工坊。
中国的农民工正以每年几百万的规模，从贫困的乡村涌入城市。他们的收入相对低，却在过去几年实现了年均两位数的增长，使得这一群体成为一大潜在消费支出来源。
根据该报告中的数据，2011年，农民工平均消费了其收入增长的56%。同时，在2011年人均月收入比上一年增长了406元（已达到2253元）的基础上，人均月支出增长了230元（36美元）。该报告还称，在同一城市居住满一年的农民工，平均支出为1761元。而如果他们在该城市居住了五年以上，平均支出将上升至2609元。
该报告指出，在2011年，23.1%的农民工有其所在城市的养老保险，13.6%有失业保险，64.3%有医疗保险。这迫使农民工大量的进行预防性储蓄，以市场利率为代价获得城市服务待遇。购买五险一金——六项基本社会福利服务——的城市居民，平均比不购买这些服务的居民多支出40%。
该报告预测，到2015年，中国将有两亿五千万农民工，其中一亿九千万不能享受社会福利。
一些经济学家称，中国的低成本劳动力资源正在快速枯竭，迫使该国逼近工资快速增长的转折点。
然而该报告认为，虽然人口在2016年达到十亿的顶点后将会出现下滑。但是到2050年，中国的劳动力数量仍将接近8.85亿，劳动力供给仍将十分丰富。
The 230 million-strong migrant workforce drives China's economy, but a lack of access to education, health and other services tied to the country's strict household registration - or hukou - system forces massive saving, restraining Beijing's efforts to shift growth's focus to consumption from investment.
"Giving the migrant population living in cities permanent status and giving them equal access to fundamental public services would greatly stimulate China's consumption growth," the National Population and Family Planning Commission said in its latest annual report.
Consumption-driven growth is regarded by many economists as a more stable development model for China than the investment-driven path trodden so far, which the International Monetary Fund says stokes over-capacity and inefficiency.
Beijing sees the rise of consumers as the key driver of growth for a generation to come in the wake of the massive urbanisation of the last three decades that lifted an estimated 600 million people from poverty and turned China's export-focused factories into the new workshops of the world.
China's migrant workers in their millions flood into cities each year from the impoverished countryside. They are relatively low paid, but have earned annual double-digit pay rises for years, making them a huge potential source of consumer spending.
Migrant workers spent an average of 56 percent of the salary increases they earned in 2011, according to data in the report.
It showed that monthly spending per capita rose by 230 yuan ($36) in 2011 from a year ago based on average pay increase of 406 yuan to 2,253 yuan a month.
Migrant workers living in any given city for one year spent 1,761 yuan on average, increasing to 2,609 yuan if they stayed for five years or longer, the report said.
The report found only 23.1 percent of Chinese migrants had pension insurance in the city in which they lived in 2011, 13.6 percent of them were covered by unemployment insurance and 64.3 percent had medical insurance.
That forces migrants into massive precautionary saving to pay market rates for services in cities.
City dwellers covered for six basic welfare services typically spend 1.4 times as much as those who are not, the report found.
The report forecasts China will have 250 million migrant workers by 2015, 190 million without access to welfare services.
Some economists say China's pool of low-cost labour is quickly drying up, pushing the country close to a turning point where wages are set for rapid gains.
However, the report said China's labour supply would continue to be abundant with the workforce reaching 885 million in 2050, albeit decelerating from a peak of 1 billion-plus, forecast to arrive in 2016. ($1 = 6.3615 Chinese yuan)
