中文摘要：

根据1998—2012年中国制造业规模以上企业数据，本文估算了中国制造业的单位劳动力成本。结果表明，在此期间制造业单位劳动力成本呈现出2004年之前有所下降随后有所上升的趋势；其中非劳动密集型产业以更高的生产率和更快的生产率增长使得其单位劳动力成本的上升部分更加平缓；分区域来看，东中西部地区的状况发生了很大的转变，当前东部地区的单位劳动力成本已高于中西部。面对劳动力成本的上涨，制造业也开始了资本替代劳动的技术选择，特别是近年来劳动密集型产业的资本深化开始超过了非劳动密集型产业，这意味着传统劳动密集型产业的艰难升级已经初现端倪。

英文摘要：

Based on the China＇s above-scale manufacturing enterprises data from 1998 to 2012, this paper calculates the unit labor costs of China＇s manufacturing industries. The results show the overall unit labor cost for manufacturing industries presents a U shape, with a declining trend before 2004 and increasing trend after 2004. Among that, the rising trend for non-labor-intensive industries with higher productivity and faster productivity growth is more slowly. The situation among different regions changed a lot during 1998 -2012. The current unit labor cost for the eastern region is higher than that for the western and central regions. Facing the rising labor costs, the manufacturing industries have begun to substitute capital for labor in recent years. We notice that the pace of capital deepening for the labor-intensive industries exceeds that for non-labor-intensive industries, which could mean a difficult upgrading process for labor-intensive industries has already emerged.