(Yicai Global) Feb. 2 -- China's home appliance behemoths, including Midea Group and Skyworth Group, have resumed production after Chinese New Year with promises of higher salaries.

Firms in the manufacturing hub of Guangdong province are luring technicians with paychecks of CNY8,000 to CNY10,000 (USD1,192 to USD1,490), Yicai Global learned. Plants are running at 60 to 70 percent of full capacity.

Midea’s kitchen and water heater division will operate at full capacity after the Spring Festival holiday ended Jan. 27. It has enough overseas orders and its output was expected to exceed the level seen before the holiday within three days.

Skyworth’s Shenzhen plant reopened on Jan. 29 at 70 percent of its capacity. The volume of orders is basically the same as that of the same period of last year, a source from the TV set maker told Yicai Global.

Vanward New Electric said to Yicai Global on Jan. 31 that around 80 percent of its total capacity has been reached as some workers have not come back to work yet. The maker of water and gas heaters has been trying to reduce its inventory and raise its turnover rate amid the digital transition.

Race for Skilled Labor

The rise of smart manufacturing is affecting blue-collar workers. The labor shortage is less severe this year than in previous years, but it is still difficult to employ high-quality workers, Xiao Youyuan, chairperson of air-conditioner company Samyou Environmental Technology, said to Yicai Global.

Zhuhai-based Samyou has made attractive job offers after the Spring Festival holiday. Salaries of warehouse keepers and assembly workers range from CNY8,000 to CNY10,000 while the 10 production shift leaders can expect to make from CNY10,000 to CNY20,000 a month.

The offers are 30 percent higher than last year, Xiao said, adding many young people would rather deliver takeout or drive ride-hailing cars than work in factories. "We offer high salaries to hire technicians with skills."

Galanz Enterprises has a different strategy as it offers technical training to all employees. The manufacturer of microwave ovens and washing machines provided over 20,000 first-line employees with pre-job and post-job training last year, creating a path for technicians to become engineers.

Vanward predicted it will recruit around 750 employees this year, and almost three-quarters of them are first-line workers. It will finish the recruitment process as soon as possible via job fairs or cooperation with vocational schools and dispatch work agencies.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi