GUANGZHOU, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- With a huge job advertisement poster hanging at the entrance of the office, HR recruiter Zhu Shaohong could only speak with a low, hoarse voice after days of speaking with candidates about job requirements, benefits, and other details.
"Recently, we've been able to recruit some 30 to 40 people every day," said Zhu, who works for Dongguan Gaowei Optical Electronics Co., Ltd. in the city of Dongguan, a manufacturing hub in south China's Guangdong Province.
Li Gang, the company's director of personnel training, said that with business orders picking up since the second half of the year, the company's operating revenue is expected to grow by at least 10 percent this year.
"The number of employees has increased from 2,000 to over 3,000 and is expected to hit approximately 3,500 at its peak," Li said.
Boasting more than 200,000 industrial enterprises, Dongguan is known as the "World Factory." Uncertainties and challenges brought by the epidemic once exerted a temporary cold spell on Dongguan's job market. However, companies in the city have maintained stable production and operation.
Dongguan's GDP registered a year-on-year increase of 1.6 percent in the first half of 2022 to reach 517.82 billion yuan (about 76 billion U.S. dollars).
With the ebbing epidemic, an increase in business orders, coupled with a slew of supportive policies, Dongguan's hiring market is showing signs of a turnaround.
"The number of employees needed in our company in the second half of the year will be three to five percentage points higher than that of last year," said Yang Haijing, operation director of Dongguan Tymphany Acoustic Technology Co., Ltd.
Modern Metal & Precision Ltd (MMP) in Dongguan's Chang'an Town has made great efforts to explore the new energy market in recent years, and its output value is expected to hit more than 1 billion yuan this year.
"The company has created more than 500 new jobs this year, up over 25 percent year on year," said Xu Dongsen, general manager of MMP.
High-end skilled professionals are in huge demand. Wu Guangming, vice president of Dongguan Technician College, said that the college held a job fair of 320 large enterprises providing 10,090 jobs on June 16, and "In the intelligent manufacturing sector, there were seven job positions for every graduate."
To facilitate the hiring process, the city launched an integrated platform this year, through which companies can post their recruitment needs and job seekers can register their information and check the schedule of recruitment activities.
The platform helped 236 enterprises hire 4,972 people in the first half of the year, according to the municipal human resources and social security bureau.
"During the period, the city also assisted 9,906 laid-off and jobless people to find employment," said Liu Yuefeng, director of the bureau.
"Local authorities will continue to promote favorable policies, provide accurate assistance and optimize entrepreneurial environment, to ensure the basic stability of employment in Dongguan," Liu said. ■
