A total of 194 workers from Lueyang county, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, return to Hai'an, Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province on Feb 24, with the help of chartered airplanes and buses arranged by the Hai'an government. [Photo/WeChat account: hafbwx]

Hai'an, a county-level city in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, chartered an airplane and buses to retrieve a total of 194 workers from Lueyang county, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, on Feb 24.

"I thought it would be difficult to return to work due to the travel restrictions put in place as a result of the outbreak of novel coronavirus," said Bai Shiwen, a worker returning to Hai'an from Lueyang. "I never imagined that we would be picked up by chartered airplanes and buses. It really saves us a lot of time and money."

Hai'an has been cooperating with Lueyang county for four years in poverty alleviation. Bai is from a poverty-stricken family in Lueyang and found a good job in Hai'an two years ago.

More than 1,000 job opportunities were provided to people in Lueyang by over 10 enterprises in Hai'an last year, alleviating a shortage of labor for Hai’an-based companies and helping reduce poverty in Lueyang.

According to a manager of Jiangsu Minglida Technology Co, 79 of the company's workers were retrieved from Lueyang by a chartered plane, including 61 new employees. 

The local companies are encountering difficulties due to a lack of workers as they try to resume operations, but now this issue has been solved, said an official from Hai'an's bureau of human resources and social security.