Free trade port plan galvanizes job market

Building a free trade port has promoted Hainan's economic development and made the area more attractive to talent, according to a new industry study.

The supply and demand of Hainan's talent market has reached a higher level since President Xi Jinping announced a plan to build the island into a free trade zone in 2018, recruitment firm zhaopin.com said in its report.

Data showed that in the fourth quarter of 2019, the number of recruits in Hainan was 2.45 times that of the first quarter of 2016.

On the supply side, the number of jobseekers has increased significantly since 2018 compared with previous years. In the second quarter of 2019, the island saw its number of job applicants nearly triple compared with the first quarter of 2016.

The labor market remained active even during the COVID-19 period, with the scale of talent supply and demand in Hainan in the first quarter nearly twice that of three years ago, the report noted.

To attract talent, the local government has optimized its industrial structure. The number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises almost doubled between January and August in 2019, according to the data from the Hainan Provincial Department of Commerce.

It also relaxed restrictions on age and educational background for jobseekers and rolled out favorable policies on housing, health care and education.