BYD has significantly ramped up hiring, increasing its workforce to more than 900,000 people as of Friday, a senior manager reportedly said, making the Chinese electric vehicle giant one of the largest employers in the country.

The move came as the Chinese government has been prioritising a push to create more jobs, for college graduates in particular as its economy falters.

The total headcount, up 5.8% from the end of August, makes BYD the largest employer among more than 5,300 companies listed on the Chinese mainland stock exchanges, Li Yunfei, BYD's general manager for branding and public relations, said in a post on his Weibo account cited by Reuters.

With nearly 110,000 technology and R&D staff, BYD is the world's largest carmaker as measured by R&D personnel, Li said, adding that the company has hired nearly 50,000 fresh graduates over the past two years. He didn't give a breakdown by location in terms of hiring.

A record number of college graduates this year are hunting for jobs in a labour market depressed by COVID-19-induced disruptions as well as regulatory crackdowns on the country's finance, tech and education sectors, Reuters noted.