ALTHOUGH the Spring Festival is still three weeks away, many employers are already experiencing problems hiring staff in Shenzhen.
Normally, there is a shortage of staff one month before the Spring Festival. However, this year the shortage emerged at the beginning of last month, an unidentified employer told yesterday s Shenzhen Economic Daily.
Restaurants, domestic services and property management had a serious problem hiring staff, particularly unskilled labor, and had to increase salaries to attract workers. Property management companies were even offering higher salaries for security guards than college graduates.
Many employers come to our market and more than 60 percent of the positions are for security guards, maids, cleaners and waiters. Many property management companies increased salaries by 20 to 30 percent before the Spring Festival. Some companies paid more than 3,000 yuan (US$453) a month to a security guard, higher than a college graduate, said Wang Yili, marketing manager at a job market in Shenzhen.
But it was still difficult to hire enough people, a person in charge of a property management center for a commercial building in Futian Central Business District surnamed Li said.
We pay a security guard 2,500 yuan a month and provide them with good accommodation at Zhongyin Garden, opposite Lianhua Hill. They pay only half price to eat at the company canteen, while the office staff have to pay full price. But even so, we have still been unable to hire enough people, particularly over the past month, Li said.
Restaurants and domestic service companies were also finding it hard to recruit staff, the newspaper said.
According to figures compiled by the city s domestic service association, there was a shortage of more than 80,000 maids at the end of last year and the number was expected to reach 100,000 this year.
Meanwhile, Shenzhen was also short of more than 80,000 restaurant staff and 50,000 hotel staff, according to a study by the Zhongnan Job Market.
(Wang Yuanyuan, Yang Anni)
