A couple takes a photo in front of the government building of Xiongxian county, Hebei province, on April 9, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

Xiongan Construction and Investment Group Co Ltd, a company based in the Xiongan New Area, started recruiting employees from around the country recently.

This is the first public recruitment in Xiongan New Area, according to China Economic Weekly.

The company published the employment information on the website of Chengtong, a recruitment agency, on Aug 31. And the 23 job openings attracted more than 4,000 candidates, equivalent to 1 in 179, within a week.

The positions on offer cover fields such as finance, infrastructure construction and public relations, with only 23 people to be hired by the State-owned enterprise, according to a report of China Economic Weekly on Tuesday.

Most of the jobs require five years of work experience and at least a bachelor's degree, and the pay is similar to that of Beijing, where the average salary for employees in public sector stood at 120,000 a year ($18,000) in 2016, said the report.

Xiongan New Area, about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing, straddles the three counties of Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin in the neighboring Hebei province.

China announced the plan to build the new area in April, aiming to promote the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province.