Chinese local governments and relevant departments are rolling out measures to stabilize employment and help companies resume production amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Migrant workers from Chenggu county in Shaaxi province board a chartered bus that will take them back to work in Zhejiang province. (Photo/People’s Daily Online)

South China’s Guangdong province, one of the country’s economic powerhouses, has lunched online job fairs to help solve the province’s labor shortage and accelerate the resumption of production.

“We have released online job information and advance online recruitment,” said Ge Guoxing, deputy director of Guangdong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security.

By Feb. 21, the province had launched 783 online job fairs attended by 31,800 companies offering more than 1 million jobs, and 675,800 job seekers, according to Ge.

Ge’s department recently formulated policies, including deferral on social insurance contributions and provision of subsidies, to reduce the cost for companies and encourage them to create more jobs.

East China’s Shanghai has also highlighted online job fairs for college graduates to ensure stable employment.

Shanghai Normal University held its first online job fair on Feb. 17, attracting over 1,600 graduates. The university also streamlined employment procedures for its students.

“We spare no effort to create a new model of ‘Internet plus employment’ as offline recruitment activities were suspended due to the epidemic,” said Ge Weihua, vice president of the university.

In addition to online job fairs, southwest China’s Sichuan province has outlined chartered buses for point-to-point transportation as well as charter flights and trains to help migrant workers get back to work.

 “Without such measures, I don’t know when I can resume work in other cities,” said Gong Xingwang, a migrant worker in Nanhua town, Deyang of the province. Gong and his fellow workers returned to the construction site of a highway linking Chengdu Tianfu International Airport in Chengdu, the capital of the province, on Feb. 17.

Meanwhile, Sichuan also launched measures to make sure that migrant workers do not get any infections during their trips to their workplaces by coordinating efforts with other provinces in the country.