North China's Shanxi province has hired 874,500 poor rural laborers with targeted assistance programs since the start of 2020, an increase of 56,500 people on the same period last year, Shanxi Poverty Alleviation and Development Office announced on Oct 16. 

Of these, 45,000 poor labors were employed by 1,001 poverty alleviation-oriented workshops and 368,000 got jobs as forest rangers, road guards and eldercare givers.

Zhang Jiancheng, deputy director of Shanxi Poverty Alleviation and Development Office, said that the province rolled out 28 specific measures to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure employment of the poor and growth of their incomes.

The province has registered basic individual information, training needs and the employment goals of all its 1.59 million poor laborers.

Moving forwards, it will conduct statistical analysis of data and carry out targeted training, to ensure that more poor laborers can obtain skills through training and achieve stable employment.