OVER 85 percent of migrant workers who left Shenzhen during the Spring Festival have returned to work in Shenzhen, with the city’s labor pool expected to meet demand this year, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

    In previous years, over 90 percent of workers returned to work after the Lantern Festival.

    According to the city’s human resources and social security administration, over 8 million migrant workers returned to Guangdong from other provinces as of Feb. 22, making up 78 percent of the workers leaving the province before the Spring Festival.

    Over 80 percent of employees returned to work in nine cities in the Pearl River Delta region, with Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Huizhou, Zhongshan and Dongguan seeing 85 percent of workers return, according to official data.

    Statistics from the administration show that 8.17 million people without Shenzhen hukou paid for unemployment insurance in January, 3 percent lower than in December last year.

    The number of migrant workers leaving Shenzhen during the Spring Festival has increased this year.

    A survey conducted by the city’s human resources association during the fourth quarter last year showed that about 75 percent of migrant workers said they would return to Shenzhen after the holiday.

    According to the administration, companies may be short-staffed for a period after the Spring Festival.

    The city’s GDP is expected to grow by 8 to 8.5 percent this year, while the unemployment rate will be below 3 percent.

    There will be 80,000 new employees in the city this year, with about 500 job fairs to be held by the government throughout the year.

    (Zhang Yang)