Young jobseekers make a beeline for Zhijiang

 

Young people showed up in droves at a job fair on January 29, where more than 70 companies in the new energy and new materials sectors were offering a range of high-paying jobs. 

 

More than 2,000 job seekers reached preliminary job agreements at the fair. 

 

A number of high-profile domestic new energy, new materials and chemical enterprises joined the job fair this year, recruiting factory directors and heads of workshops as well as technical personnel for R&D positions. With the boom in e-commerce in Yichang, there were also offers for livestreaming hosts. 

 

The jobs on offer this year differ from previous years where companies were looking for junior machine operators, general workers, sales staff and clerical staff.

 

The monthly salary offered for most of these new posts was over 4,000 yuan (US$588). Nearly 30 companies offered starting salaries of more than 10,000 yuan per month, half of them being new energy and new materials enterprises. The highest salary on offer was 15,000 yuan per month.

 

These changes in the job market reflect Yichang’s ongoing industrial transformation. As more new energy and new materials companies settle in Zhijiang, high-paying jobs become more common.

 

The job fair was the first of Zhijiang’s "Spring Employment Actions" for 2023. The campaign aims to help rural workers find jobs or start their own businesses, and help employers find suitable staff.

 

About 29 percent of those who reached a preliminary job agreement with an employer at the "Spring Employment Action" were born after 1990 and have a college degree or above, an increase of 3 percentage points year on year. They have been hired for technical or management positions in emerging industries, in the service sector or in the e-commerce sector.