(Yicai Global) Jan. 30 -- A number of major cities along China’s developed eastern coast have organized free trains and planes to encourage migrant workers who had returned home for the week-long Chinese New Year break to return to the metropolises in time to start work before the end of the break on Jan. 27.

Fuzhou in southeastern Fujian province brought in 238 staff of key companies from southwestern Yunnan province on Jan. 26 on free-of-charge charter flights, local media reported.

The same day, Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province received more than 400 workers on a free charter train from Guilin, southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Authorities even organized transport from Yangshuo county, part of Guilin, to take people to the railway station, local media reported. They were met on arrival and taken to their dorms by shuttle bus.

China’s economic hubs are having to step up their efforts to attract the huge numbers of migrant workers they need to power their growth as the country’s working age population shrinks. Last year, there was a 0.4 percentage point decline in those aged between 16 and 59 years old from the year before, equivalent to a slump of 6.6 million people to 876 million, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics on Jan. 17.

Shenzhen is offering transport subsidies of CNY200 (USD29) to each employee of companies with more than 500 staff who return to work before Feb. 5, the city’s human resources and social security authority said on Jan. 12. Allowances for each such company can reach up to CNY400,000 (USD59,244).

Zhejiang province will offer free transport from areas where a large number of migrant workers are based back to the province, the provincial government said last month. And some local governments in the province will split the cost of chartering transport to bring employees back with companies.

Recruitment is getting harder as the country’s economy bounces back this year, and businesses become more optimistic about achieving their growth targets, said Peng Peng, executive president of the Guangdong Institutional Reform Research Association.

As pandemic prevention measures are eased, the service sector will start hiring more, which will put pressure on those recruiting in the manufacturing industry, he said. However, in the end, this should help to stimulate industrial upgrading which will boost the economy’s high-quality growth.

Many migrant workers returned home last year due to the Covid-19 outbreaks in the Pearl River and Yangtze River Delta regions along China’s eastern coastline. Whether they will return to these economic hubs this year remains to be seen. Also, the industrial shift inland in recent years has enabled more people to find work closer to home or to start their own businesses, he added.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Kim Taylor