With under a month left until Spring Festival, several regions in Zhejiang province have already taken measures to help companies resume operations as soon as possible after the holiday.

The city of Huzhou announced on Jan 9 it had allocated 70 million yuan ($9.8 million) to support recruitment after the holiday — which runs from Feb 10 to 17 — and the early commencement of manufacturing projects.

To support recruitment, Huzhou will give 1,000 yuan per person — up to a maximum of 100,000 yuan per enterprise — to manufacturing companies that hire 10 or more new employees from outside the city from Feb 10 to Feb 24.

In addition, Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, announced that starting from Wednesday, it will offer train ticket subsidies to 10,000 employees who buy tickets from Jan 26 to March 5 for return journeys, worth a maximum of 200 yuan per person.

In Yiwu, another city in Zhejiang, four buses carrying 177 workers from Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province, arrived in the city on Jan 6, the first bus carrying employees to arrive in Zhejiang this year.

In December, Yiwu conducted an investigation into the expected employment situation in the city during Spring Festival, and it began working with 186 labor cooperation workstations across the country, in response to seasonal labor shortages around the holiday.

"The Lisu people in Nujiang celebrate their local Spring Festival, called Kuoshi Festival, before Jan 1.So they can travel now to Zhejiang and work during the national Spring Festival," said Luo Xuwei, deputy director of the Employment and Talent Management Service Center in Yiwu.

Enterprises in Yiwu sent staff to Nujiang for recruitment, and picked up new employees by bus after face-to-face interviews. The number of employees involved was larger than in previous years.

Similar policies have been issued in regions requiring more labor, such as in Guangdong province, where Dongguan city will provide transportation subsidies to migrant workers who return after Spring Festival, with subsidies ranging from 200 to 300 yuan per person.

The city government will also organize special vehicles and chartered trains to help employees, including those newly recruited from other provinces and cities, quickly return to work.

Enterprises in Dongguan that employ nonlocals for the first time, sign labor contracts and provide them with social insurance for more than three months will receive a onetime subsidy of 1,000 yuan per person.

The measures on stabilizing production, boosting consumption and ensuring employment stability are some of the important moves being made to facilitate a steady and positive economic start to the year for Dongguan, the local government said.