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Wenzhou firms wow job seekers with perks

(China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-03 07:44

Free meals with fruit, a dormitory with air-conditioning and TV, plus holidays. These are the enticing job conditions offered on the vacancy board for migrant workers by a private shoe-making factory in East China's Zhejiang province.

Plush benefits have allowed some companies such as Dongyi Shoes Co Ltd to fend off a surprising labor shortage that has struck the manufacturing center of Wenzhou in Zhejiang since the second quarter. Many private businesses are savvy enough to optimize work conditions to attract laborers, said Wang Ouxiang, deputy secretary of the Employment Service Center in Wenzhou.

"Factories in the city are thirsty for laborers, but the Dongyi Shoes Co Ltd did not have much trouble in recruiting workers because the company can offer comfortable work conditions, which have become an increasingly important factor for the new generation of rural laborers when choosing a job," he said.

The city has 150,000 job openings as manufacturing industries begin to recover.

Related readings:  Wenzhou charts new survival strategies to beat slump  Wenzhou feels the export blues  Labor shortfall felt in coastal China as orders pile up  Labor shortage hinders Guangdong factories

According to Wenzhou Customs statistics, the city's garment exports rose 10 percent in July from the same period last year, and are 12 percent higher than last month.

However, export-oriented garment and shoe-making factories in Wenzhou, known as the cradle of Chinese private firms, are enjoying mixed fortunes.

"We are thrilled to see that new orders keep on coming. We have already had 50 percent more orders than the same period last year. The present priority is to hire more hands to cope with the orders," said Chen Aimin, a human resources manager for Kuoshuai Dress Co Ltd in Zhejiang.

The company needs to recruit 300 workers to beef up production, he said.

Zheng Chen'ai, head of the Wenzhou Chamber of Garment Industry, said that emerging manufacturing bases in far-flung provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan have become rival attractions for migrant workers.

"Factories in traditional manufacturing bases in the coastal region should make bolder investments in improving salaries, training and work environment to migrant workers in order to guarantee stable employment," he said.