Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has taken a spate of measures to help rural migrant workers return to work amid the novel coronavirus epidemic, local authorities said.

According to the human resources and social security department of Xinjiang, as of February, the region had provided chartered trains and buses for over 60,000 migrant workers to return to work in Xinjiang and other provincial-level regions.

The region rolled out preferential policies to encourage labor-intensive enterprises in the four prefectures of southern Xinjiang to recruit local employees.

Enterprises that recruit Xinjiang laborers and carry out pre-job training can receive a subsidy of 2,400 yuan (about 345 U.S. dollars) per person. For textile and garment enterprises that absorb Xinjiang employees will be given an employment subsidy of 5,000 yuan per person every quarter.

For garment, home textiles, knitting and other manufacturing enterprises, they will enjoy an annual subsidy for talent introduction of 50,000 yuan per person for every 50 employees.

Xinjiang will also refund unemployment insurance to enterprises to stabilize jobs. As of Feb. 29, Xinjiang had returned 57.5 million yuan of unemployment insurance to 1,734 enterprises.