春节长假后农民工短缺

With China’s Spring Festival holiday winding to end, many migrant workers have already returned to their cities of work. But a large number of them are staying put at home for a while longer. It’s posing a challenge for employers, who are acting fast to bring in more workers.

For many companies in China’s east Zhejiang province, recruitment has to be done at train stations.

Here in Shaoxing city, migrant workers are stuffed with job ads the moment they step off the train.

Zhu Xiaofeng, recruitment staff of Jingdongfang Display Tech. Company, said, "Our production scale is expanding and we need an additional 50 workers urgently."

Wei Haifeng, recruitment staff of Zhende Medical Co, ltd., said, "We’ve been here twice and also the bus station. We hand out our advertisements and if they would like to work with us, we drive them to our company directly."

But many of these workers are coming back with a signed contract already waiting.

Employers have also been shouldering the rising cost of labour.

In southern city Shenzhen, the minimum wage for full time work has risen from 1500 yuan to 1600 yuan per month, a record high in the country. The new policy has drawn many workers to the city.

A browse through Shenzhen’s recruitment sites shows employers often clearly lay out workers’ welfares. And typical salaries vary from 2000 yuan to 4000 a month.

"There were fewer companies who recruited in the past years. But this year, there are more out there offering much better pay than before."

"We pay every worker 3 thousand to 4 thousand yuan a month. This is a huge burden for small companies."

But there are also optimistic voices from employers, saying the pressure of rising costs is driving industrial reform, which will benefit companies in their long run.