Chinese manufacturers scramble to find workers

Job applicants are seen at a job fair in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, in this Feb 21, 2013 file photo. [Photo/Xinhua]

JINAN - Chinese low-cost manufacturers are trying various ways to retain workers and attract new ones after the Lunar New Year holiday, as the country's economic recovery brings in more orders.

Factory workers, mostly rural migrants, usually go home for family reunions during the traditional holiday. But many take advantage of the break to find better jobs and therefore do not return to their former employers.

Companies have raised salaries or offered financial incentives in an attempt to retain workers.

"Although the whole industry is still mired in gloom, we still plan to raise the workers' salary by 10 percent this year," said Tian Chengjie, vice-president of Silverman Holdings Ltd., a textile company in Zibo of Shandong Province.

In a bid to get workers back, many companies reportedly chose to pay year-end bonuses after the holiday. Some promised to offer a reward of 1,000 yuan for each year of their service.

Amid efforts to recruit enough workers, some companies promised to reward staff hundreds of yuan if they brought along new workers. Some even offered hundreds of yuan to workers' parents.

However, for many employees higher pay is not enough.

Increasingly, migrants, especially the younger generation, demand respect and good working conditions.

Executives at Orans Co. Ltd., in Taizhou in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, lined up at its factory gates and bowed when staff returned to work Monday, the first day after the Lantern Festival.

The respect the executives showed won praise from netizens.

"This should not be seen as a mere show. You can only make fortunes by showing respect to the labor force," wrote a netizen under the name of "Yunjianwei" on Sina Weibo, a popular Twitter-like micro-blogging service.