Recruiting in China

HONG KONG - ELECTRONICS manufacturing giant Flextronics International said on Tuesday it will hire more than 6,000 migrant workers in mainland China this month because of a rise in demand ahead of Christmas.

The company will also take on an additional 1,000 workers in the next two months, Valerie Kurniawan, senior communications director for Flextronics Asia, told AFP.

'The demand is coming from all over the group, it's all segments and industries,' Ms Kurniawan said.

Flextronics makes parts and equipment for the automotive and mobile phone industries among others and its clients include Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and Microsoft Corp. The company's latest hiring spree has focused on its Zhuhai Industrial Park in the Pearl River Delta in the south of the country.

Chinese factories have been rushing to hire migrant workers laid off during the global crisis as they ramp up production but analysts have warned that the labour shortage stems from a short-term rise in demand from Christmas orders rather than a recovery in China's key export sector.

Nearly 20 million migrant workers lost their jobs at the start of the year as factories closed or slashed production in response to plummeting export orders from key markets in Europe and the United States.