Married women who have had children are starting to gain popularity among employers, reports Chongqing Morning Post.

Joining a recent job fair in Chongqing municipality, a local food processing company looks for unmarried female employees between the age of 18 and 22 as well as women between the age of 22 to 25, who have been married and have given births.

A company representative, who declines to be identified, told the newspaper that they made the requirement for the sake of saving human resources expenditure since enterprises suffer from losses resulting from female employees' maternity leaves.

He added that as married women with children are less likely to change their jobs, hiring them would stabilize the structure of an enterprise's workforce.

China's new Labor Contract Law, which went into effect on the first day of the New Year, aims to provide more legal recourse for employees and increase their benefits. The newspaper quotes human resources experts as saying that the number of enterprises adjusting their employment policies along with the implementation of new Labor Contract Law is on the rise.

(CRI February 15, 2008)