Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 18th Title: Enterprises are stable in employment, migrant workers return to work early - directly after the holidays

Xinhua News Agency reporters Jiang Lin and Huang Haoyuan

One special trains return to work have arrived one after another, one recruitment event has been held, and one employment service has been launched intensively... The flavor of the New Year has not yet fallen far away, and the employment market has been busy. The reporter directly visited the front-line employment scenarios of enterprises in many places, feeling the acceleration of returning to work after the New Year and the hottest labor market.

On February 11, 2025, dozens of migrant workers from Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province took the C50 train to start their work journey in the Year of the Snake. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Bingjie

Walking into Sany Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd. in Kunshan, Jiangsu, in the smart factory, hundreds of robot arms waving up and down, and the smart AGV car shuttled back and forth. Different orders from more than ten countries are produced here at the same time, and a micro excavator can be removed from the line in 10 minutes at the highest peak.

"On the day of the start of construction on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, 95% of the about 8,000 employees have resumed work, and the return to work is better than in previous years. Recently, some front-line skilled personnel have been recruited, and now all employees are in place." Chen Jiayuan, chairman of Sany Heavy Machinery, said that overseas orders have grown steadily this year, and from January to February, it is expected that the overall sales of excavators will grow by about 15%.

On February 7, 2025, the FAW Jiefang J7 vehicle smart factory located in Changchun City, Jilin Province was in a busy scene. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Nan

At Nanjing Connie New Energy Auto Parts Co., Ltd., a bus brought more than 40 job seekers to interview.

The company's chairman Hu Guomin told reporters that driven by the overall rapid growth of the new energy vehicle industry, the company's product demand is strong, and orders in the first quarter will usher in rapid growth, and plans to recruit 100 assembly personnel this year.

Data shows that as of February 9, the return rate of employees of key monitoring enterprises in Suzhou, Nanjing, Changzhou and Yancheng, Jiangsu Province has reached 92.01%, 96.63%, 92.14% and 94% respectively.

While labor demand rebounds after the holiday, workers are also looking forward to returning to work early and increasing their income early, and the pace of going out to work is accelerating. The reporter learned that the proportion of migrant workers returning to work in many places is higher than the same period last year.

On February 15, 2025, the 2025 Hebei Province Spring Large Job Fair was held in Jiefang Plaza, Shijiazhuang City. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Liang Zidong)

The reporter saw in the Nanjing digital gig market that many job seekers gathered in the hall early in the morning. "After the Spring Festival this year, migrant workers came back early, and some people came out to find jobs on the third day of the Chinese New Year. Many people came when we opened the door on the fifth day of the Chinese New Year." Song Xiaoping, head of market operations, introduced.

"It is expected that by the end of February, the total employment of migrant workers in the province will quickly recover to the normalized level of more than 24 million." said Xia Wenzhe, director of the Jiangsu Provincial Labor Employment Management Center.

In the Pearl River Delta region, the characteristics of "sustainable start of enterprises and fast employees" are also shown after the holiday.

In the workshop of Guangdong Xiangshan Hengqi Group Co., Ltd., 13 production lines are running at full capacity and at full capacity. The company has more than 1,700 employees, and the return rate exceeded 87% on the first day of the seventh day of the Lunar New Year.

"Our overseas sales account for more than 30%, and overseas demand has surged since the end of last year." Wang Xianche, president of Xiangshan Weighting Business Department, said, "The current orders are in a state of explosive orders, which has exceeded 30% of our production capacity. We plan to open three more production lines, with a gap of about 150 front-line employees, and we will hurry up and recruit." "The survey shows that compared with the same period last year, 70% or 80% of the company's confidence has increased or remained the same." Xia Yibing, director of the Guangdong Provincial Employment Service Administration, said that although the external environment is complex and changeable, some companies are still facing challenges, judging from the supply and demand situation of the labor market after the holiday, market confidence is generally recovering.

In order to promote the "first stick" of the Year of the Snake economy, the human resources and social security departments in many places have organized enterprises to go out to work in advance, and arranged point-to-point direct delivery services such as special trains returning to work, so as to help enterprises stabilize production and migrant workers return to work conveniently.

"As of February 12, more than 18 million migrant workers from other provinces have returned to work, accounting for about 92.8% of the number of people returning home before the holiday, an increase of 2.1 percentage points year-on-year." Xia Yibing introduced.