ZHENGZHOU: More than 1 million jobless migrant workers who have returned to Henan amid the economic downturn will be provided with subsidies for vocational training to help them find jobs, the local government said yesterday.

"A huge number of migrant workers have returned to the province since the end of last year. We are concerned about their future, and will step up vocational training courses so that they are able to find work opportunities," Liu Mancang, deputy governor of Henan, told reporters on the sidelines of the second session of the 11th provincial people's congress, which opened on Monday.

With the impact of the economic slowdown exacerbating on a national scale, forcing the shutters down on hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized plants, the province, home to China's largest migrant population of nearly 20 million, is one of the hardest hit.