招工 (zhāo gōng) — to recruit workers, to hire staff

Definition

A verb-object phrase meaning 'to recruit / hire workers', typically used for businesses or factories looking to fill jobs. Unlike 招聘 (more formal, white-collar hiring), 招工 usually refers to blue-collar or manual labor recruitment.

verb
to recruit workersto hire staff
Easily confused

Examples

  • 招工，。
    Zhè jiā gōng sī zhèng zài zhāo gōng, nǐ kě yǐ qù shì shì.
    This company is recruiting workers; you can give it a try.
  • ，。
    Tā men jīn nián zhāo le sān cì gōng, dōu méi zhāo gòu rén.
    They recruited workers three times this year but still haven't hired enough people.
  • 招工。
    Zhè ge gōng chǎng de zhāo gōng guǎng gào tiē mǎn le fù jìn shè qū.
    This factory's recruitment ads are plastered all over the nearby community.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

招zhāorecruit
工gōngworker

招 (recruit) + 工 (worker) gives the action of recruiting workers.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
扌Written in full as手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
召
召zhào招zhāo
Same sound today

招 pairs 扌, the hand part, with 召, which gives the sound, to show beckoning with the hand.

Open 招 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Open 工 →

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