Chinese ride-hailing service giant Didi Chuxing has created more than 3.88 million jobs in 17 provinces as of May, and more than 500,000 workers who were laid off from their jobs in the steel and coal industries have found employment through the platform, according to a recent report from Didi Chuxing.

The report, issued on July 18, was based on responses from 40,320 questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered to Didi Chuxing drivers in 30 cities, including cities in Shanxi, Sichuan and Heilongjiang provinces, where the economy used to revolve around steel and coal, according to thepaper.cn.

Some 311,000 Didi Chuxing drivers had experience in the coal industry before switching professions, while 219,000 had experience in the steel industry. Another 179,000 drivers used to be in the army.

The percentage of Didi drivers originally from the steel and coal industries in Shanxi, Sichuan and Heilongjiang provinces was 28.5, 24.8 and 20.3 percent respectively, accounting for 7.8 percent of the total population working in tertiary industries in those provinces, thepaper.cn reported.

Some 85.4 percent of the drivers work part-time, while another 14.6 percent quit their jobs to work full-time for Didi Chuxing. Over 40 percent said they joined Didi Chuxing to earn more money so they could better support their families, while another 11.2 percent said they became Didi drivers because they were worried about losing their original jobs.

“I used to work underground in a coal mine. It feels safer driving for Didi, and I have more free time now. I also come into contact with a greater variety of people,” said Guo Gaofeng, a part-time Didi driver in central China’s Henan province, to a reporter from People’s Daily Online.

China has vowed to cut between 100 and 150 million tons of crude steel production within five years, as well as 500 million tons of coal production in three to five years. The cuts would take jobs from some 500,000 workers in the steel industry and 1.3 million in the coal industry, thepaper.cn reported.