The Chinese labor market is getting hotter after the Chinese New Year holiday, or the Spring Festival, with recruiters racing to find enough workers to meet companies' growing demand for manpower, a sign that economic recovery has picked up pace beyond expectation.

A recruiting team from Shengzhou of east China's Zhejiang Province has also joined the competition. They started a cross-provincial tour in search of desirable candidates. Their last stop was Sandu, an ethnic minority county rich in labor resources in the southwest province of Guizhou. The county is home to nearly 160,000 laborers aged between18 and 60, more than half of whom working outside the province.

Shengzhou was not that short of labors several years go. Things change quickly, however, as it speeds up industrial upgrading and introduces more new energy companies. Recruiters were betting on their stay in Sandu.

Recruiting teams from other more developed cities like Guangzhou were also on the way to Sandu. To attract more job seekers, the Sandu team decided to take the initiative.

They held a job fair with 15 companies involved at the Zhonghe Town. But the employers failed to meet expectations due to the rainy weather.

They then turned to online channels. With the help of local officials, they sent recruiting messages widely to residents. Those interested could fill in registration forms online and the recruiters would get in touch with them.

Meanwhile, staff of the Shengzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau went deep into villages to introduce their job opportunities. They also offered villagers free tours to Shengzhou.

The larger job fair kicked off a day later, with nearly 100 companies from the economic powerhouses of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Guangdong, as well as local firms, competing for the limited number of workers. There were also cities that failed to attend the event due to late registration.

Apart from setting up booths with advertising banners and signs, recruiters also walked around to hand out leaflets. Some of them were eager to find suitable candidates as soon as possible to keep the production line operational. Some wanted to recruit talents for goals set in long-term planning.

Local authorities in Sandu are also stepping up efforts to promote employment.

Encouraging indicators including the purchasing managers' index in early 2023 are bolstering forecasts of a faster-than-expected recovery of China's economy and global growth.

The purchasing managers' index for China's manufacturing sector came in at 50.1 in January, returning to expansion after three consecutive months of contraction.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lifted its forecast for China's economic growth in 2023 to 5.2 percent from a previous prediction of 4.4 percent. Investment banks, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, have also revised their growth forecasts for the world's second largest economy.