Thirty-eight-year-old Shanghai resident Dai Liang (an alias) attended a job fair on Sunday. Unlike other recruiting events, however, this one catered specifically to former drug addicts.

"There were about 50 to 60 applicants with their families and friends and about seven to eight employers, so the competition was fierce," Dai told China Daily on Tuesday.

Dai said he had applied for roles as a painter and a waiter and felt lucky to have secured interviews on Wednesday.

Li Li, a 29-year-old social worker for the government-funded Council of Shanghai Ziqiang Social Service, who helped Dai complete his applications, said it was difficult for job seekers like Dai to find suitable roles due to their former addictions, as well as their lack of education and general work experience.

She said Dai came to the council in November after he left a rehabilitation center, seeking help to stay clean and look for a job.

"We contacted more than 10 prospective employers, but it didn't work out," she said, explaining that it is easy for someone like him to be turned down, while being told the position has a certain age limit. "This time, I hope he gets a chance."

According to Li, Dai's parents sold his old apartment in Minhang district's Yindu Xincun neighborhood and bought him a new one in a different area to help him make a fresh start.

The job fair for former drug addicts was the first of its kind in the city's Minhang district. Zhao Jiechun, director of the council's Minhang branch and one of the fair organizers, said the one-off job fair will not solve the long-term unemployment problems of former addicts.

"We want to build a long-term platform to keep track of both changing positions and employees," Zhao said. "We had about 50 positions on offer this time. Most of them were for cooks, sanitation workers, security guards and doorkeepers."

Zhao's office currently has 45 social workers employed to help drug addicts kick their habits and land jobs.

"Each one is in charge of more than 30 addicts," he said. "About one-third of the addicts are in the rehabilitation center and another third disappeared after they left the center. So there's only one-third we can actually locate and try to help."