Roughly 70 percent of employers in Zhengzhou, Henan province, have had their monthly salaries raised to at least 2,000 yuan ($320), an increase of 200 yuan from last year, according to statistics released by a local job fair organizer this month, Dahe Daily reported on Tuesday.

Lu Yu, a staff member at the Henan Talent Exchange Center, which organizes local job fairs, said nearly 68,000 job-hunters are competing for 40,000 job openings offered in the first quarter of this year.

There has been a rapid rise in the number of local college graduates ready to work in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, but skilled laborers are still in demand, Lu added.