(Yicai Global) Feb. 28 -- Nearly 30 percent of businesses in China have not yet returned to work following the outbreak of Covid-19, and a third of those that have are struggling with cash flow, according to a survey from recruitment solutions provider 51job.

The number of companies that have returned is growing quickly, now up to 71.8 percent from 53 percent on Feb. 10, results from the survey of 1,336 employers and 3,850 employees show. Some 92 percent of web-based firms are back to work and 89.2 percent of financial workers are.

Most of the firms surveyed are spending more than they are earning, and 34 percent believe they can only hold out for one to three months with their current state of cash flow. 21 percent expect they can last between three months and six months, 8.6 percent between six months and a year, and 31 percent forecast they have sufficient cash flow to last at least one year.

There needs to be reserve requirement ratio and interest rate cuts as soon as possible to reduce corporate financing costs, Teng Tai, dean of Wanbo New Economy Research Institute, told Yicai Global. He also believes state-owned enterprises should increase dividend payments, saying if they paid 50 percent of their 2019 profit in dividends, it would increase non-tax revenue by CNY1.3 trillion (USD185.6 billion).

Many workers are not earning while their business remains closed, the report said. More than half of those surveyed are keen to get back to work as soon as possible, and just 6.9 percent said they did not want to work.

Several companies are still hiring, though. Between Feb. 10 and Feb. 21, 570,000 new posts appeared on 51job, and over 5 million people submitted their resume online, though these figures were down 31 percent and 45 percent from a year earlier. Some 57 percent of employers have increased their social recruitment quota or left it unchanged from last year, while 12 percent have deferred their social recruitment.

Cross-border travel is one of the main issues in hiring right now, said Zhang Chenggang, director of Capital University of Economics and Business's Research center for China's New Employment Form. He believes the government should address labor mobility to try and get staff back to work as soon as possible.

Editors: Xu Wei, James Boynton