Zhejiang province is organizing some 320 recruitment fairs online and offline in a number of other provinces in the coming days, according to its human resources authorities.
The effort is part of the province's latest hiring campaign to draw migrant workers, as companies expect rising factory orders and booming production in the wake of the Spring Festival holiday.
"We are planning to expand production in 2023, so there is strong demand for workers," said Wu Lingjie, head of recruitment at Astronergy, a supplier of photovoltaic modules in Haining. "We hope to fill all of the 1,300 positions we are offering."
On Sunday, a recruitment fair was held in Guang'an, Sichuan province, with some 67 Zhejiang companies and 12,000 openings. More than 20,000 people attended the fair, 2,360 of whom reached tentative agreements with the companies.
As one of the most vibrant places for the private economy, Zhejiang has attracted some 22 million workers from outside the province.
The province kick-started its recruitment drive soon after China optimized COVID-19 management in December. According to the provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, 106 recruitment trips and events to other provinces were organized in the first three weeks of January. More than 700 job fairs will be arranged by the end of March, it said.
Cities in Zhejiang took the initiative to hire workers from outside the province as well.
"We need to seize the golden period of the Spring Festival holiday, when workers return to their hometowns, and get them to come back," said Wang Fen, deputy director of the bureau of human resources and social security in Shaoxing. "It is the first crucial step to jump-start economic development."
On Saturday, the first working day after the Spring Festival holiday, the city sent out 27 recruitment delegations, made up of representatives from local enterprises, to nine other provinces, including Guizhou, Yunnan and Anhui, to scour for workers.
Meanwhile, Zhejiang authorities have also rolled out a series of incentives. For example, recruitment agencies that successfully help hire five or more employees for companies are entitled to receive rewards up to 100,000 yuan ($14,808).
