Trade unions at all levels are striving to help return migrant workers to locate new jobs by providing them with training courses, small loans and guidance for job hunting, according to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Fang Bin, a young man from Weixian County in northern Hebei Province used to be a migrant worker in the eastern city of Suzhou. But he had to close his small business and return home last December when he found his market shrank due to the financial crisis.

The trade union in his hometown came to his aid and invited him to several seminars on starting new businesses. It provided him with the idea of opening a rural supermarket in his village, using the 300,000 yuan (42,000 U.S. dollars) he had saved from his business in Suzhou.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture indicated that from July to December 2008, 7.8 million of the 130 million migrant workers returned home due to the drying job market.

Trade unions in Xinyang City in central Henan Province trained about 37,000 out-of-work migrant workers, and recommended about two-thirds of them to new jobs in the urban area.

Trade unions in Tongling City in eastern Anhui Province planned to add 400,000 yuan (57,000 U.S. dollars) in small loans this year to help migrant workers start small businesses.

The Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions opened employment agencies especially for migrant and laid-off workers. Two-hundred and eighty enterprises registered for 2,200 positions. More than 1,500 people who sought jobs in those agencies signed contracts with their employers, according to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2009)