Tech firms ramp up AI talent recruitment

It said that e-commerce platforms have not only created abundant employment opportunities in rural vitalization and community development, but also promoted the realization of inclusive employment. They are crucial for improving the quality of people's lives, and laying a solid foundation for ensuring social fairness and stability.

As a leading domestic online marketplace for agricultural products, Pinduoduo has helped more than 300,000 new farmers to return to their hometowns to start new businesses.

Xie Ruiling, a mother of two children, lives in Ganjiang village of Tianshui, Gansu province, which is famed for its ruby-like Huaniu apples.

In the past, Xie could only do some odd jobs to supplement the family income. The turning point came in 2019 when Zhang Pengfei, a native of Tianshui, returned to his hometown and opened a fresh food store on Pinduoduo.

The sales of Huaniu apples at Zhang's online store witnessed rapid growth, which propelled the construction of warehousing and cold chain facilities, and created many job opportunities for local villagers.

Zhang established a warehouse for storing fresh produce, and Xie was recruited and put in charge of packaging apples. Zhang's warehouse has provided employment to more than 10 women like Xie, who all now have stable incomes.

"The rise of e-commerce platforms has enabled innovative technologies to have an impact on a broader population at an unprecedented speed. The 'industry plus internet' model has created employment opportunities for tens of millions of people engaged in industry, agriculture and services," said Liu Xiaochun, an associate professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"It has offered a large number of jobs for disadvantaged groups such as women and the elderly, demonstrating the inclusiveness of this model," Liu said.

Liu highlighted that the platform economy has demonstrated great potential in resource allocation as well as industrial synergy and integration, and played a significant role in promoting high-quality economic development.

Chinese short-video platform Kuaishou had created 43.2 million jobs and given rise to 174 new occupations by the end of 2024, according to a report released by the China Institute for Employment and Welfare Studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing.

The platform offered about 23 million direct employment opportunities for short-video creators and livestreaming hosts, who directly gained income through the platform last year. The number of content creators with a monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan increased by 14 percent compared with 2023, the report said.

Li Yongjian, a researcher at the National Academy of Economic Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said livestreaming e-commerce is of great significance in bolstering the growth of consumption, expanding employment and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural residents, serving as an important force driving China's high-quality economic development.

Moreover, Chinese manufacturing enterprises are strengthening employment opportunities, as China is vigorously advancing the high-end, intelligent and green transformation of its manufacturing sector.

Home appliance manufacturer Midea Group said it will intensify efforts to offer more than 2,000 job positions through campus recruitment this year. The company continuously stepped up recruitment in fields like AI, robotics, new energy and healthcare between January and April, with nearly 1,000 people recruited so far.

Pan Helin, a member of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Expert Committee for Information and Communication Economy, said that manufacturing is the main field for absorbing the surplus rural labor force while in the process of urbanization, and serves as an important foundation for nurturing new employment growth points.