COMPARED with large corporations, small-sized companies in Futian District are encountering challenges hiring employees in spite of fair pay.

    Most of the restaurants and clothing shops in Futian have reopened two months after the Chinese New Year holiday, which fell in early February this year, but many have had difficulties finding proper employees.

    A restaurant owner said that he had six wait staffers working for him before the Chinese New Year, but two of them quit the job just before the holidays.

    “People working for restaurants tend to move around frequently and many chose to leave their former employers after getting paid,” said the owner, who had to hire staff after Chinese New Year three years ago.

    A director at a startup firm in Futian said that competent programmers and management talents are difficult to find.

    “Good programmers need to have profound work experience that has been accumulated over many years,” said the director.

    For high-paying talents with special skills, their salary demands are normally higher. If this group of employees is not satisfied with their current income, they are more likely to change jobs.

    The startup company’s director said that his company could do nothing about the current situation. “Operating costs have increased because we are shorthanded and have to reschedule a lot of work, adding more workloads for our existing employees,” he said.

    Though vacancies are available in the job market, job seekers are not rushing for the jobs — they are waiting for better offers.

    Li Nan, a job seeker, said he came back to Shenzhen from central China’s Hubei Province only one week after the holidays. “I wanted to come back earlier to find a better job,” said Li. He previously worked for a startup company in Futian, but did not get good pay.

    Li said that he had witnessed the upsurge of living costs in Shenzhen over the past two years and needs a salary compatible with the cost of living in the city.

    A staff member from a job seeking agency said many job seekers have been demanding higher salaries in recent years.

    In order to find proper employees, some companies are paying more and increasing commission rates for sales people. However, it is still hard to meet hiring goals.

    Experts in the field of social development said that the current labor shortage trend is a countrywide phenomenon.

    “The structural shortage of workers has been a long-term challenge for the city. However, the problem has particularly stood out in recent years because of a gloomy economy globally, the depreciation of the yuan as well as inflation,” said Zhou Lingang, director of the research center of social development and public policy at Shenzhen University.

    Zhou said changes in the job market are closely related to population transitions, living expenses and urbanization. In Shenzhen, the main labor force has shifted to younger persons born in the 1980s-90s.(Zhang Qian)