Net is cast wider to ease social work gap

To ease a chronic shortage of social workers, Beijing has eased restrictions on who can apply in its latest recruitment drive.

About 1,000 college graduates are to be hired to work in communities citywide by May, with exams for the first time open to people without Beijing residency permits.

"In the past, recruitment was mainly aimed at creating job opportunities to alleviate the employment pressure," explained Zhao Sen, who oversees recruitment for the municipal civil affairs bureau. "From this year on, however, the government wants to attract more elite young people to ease a shortfall of 200,000 social workers in the capital."