Archives 2008

Report: Beijing is China’s most innovative city

BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — Chinese capital of Beijing tops a nationwide city innovation list, according to a report released by the China City Development Research Institute on Sunday.

Shanghai, the business and financial center, and Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, ranked second and third on the list, ahead of Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing.

Cheng Andong, the institute’s executive director, said cities, which generate 70 percent of gross domestic product and are home to over 90 percent universities and research agencies, play a key role in building China into an innovative country.

The cities should develop more advanced technologies to help transform the growth mode and structures of the national economy, Cheng told a forum in Beijing.

Officials and scholars at the forum also called to introduce more innovative government management patterns and build more responsible and low-lost governments.

Govt jobs best bet in ‘bad times’

The 775,000 candidates knew only 175 out of every 10,000 would get the chance to work in central government departments but that did not stop them from taking the national civil services exam Sunday.

Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security figures show 21 percent more candidates wrote the exam this year. The candidates, most of them graduating students, are fighting for 13,566 “gold rice bowls”, or central government department posts.

A candidate shows her admit card for national civil service exam in Hefei, Anhui province November 30, 2008. About 775,000 people are competing for 13,566 government jobs this years. [Xinhua]

China Disabled Person’s Federation jobs have attracted the highest number of candidates for a post: 4,723.

Candidates who pass the exam will be called for interviews and have to take a professional test before March 15, 2009. The successful ones can expect to get an offer before June, the ministry said.

“A civil service job is ideal for me. Although my current job might pay better, I want stability, more leisure time and more personal space. And all those can be got only as a civil servant,” said Qian Qi, 22, who now works as an assistant in a foreign-funded company in Jiangsu province.

Yang Shiqiu, vice-minister of human resources and social security, said earlier that more candidates are competing for civil service jobs this year because of growing unemployment and the advantages such posts offer during these difficult times.

Cong Cong, a postgraduate student of Nanjing University, said: “I didn’t think of beating so many candidates for a job when I applied for a position offered in the Ministry of Education. But I have to because I’ve submitted my resume to about 60 firms and got only 10 replies, and no offers.”
November and December are the best time for candidates to get a high-end job, and half the students from Cong’s department should have got offers by now. But this year, only two or three of them have been able to find a job. “Big or small, the civil services exam gives us hope,” she said.

Almost 65 percent of the 5,000 people polled online recently said they would take the exam next year again if they fail this year. The survey also showed almost half of them had already written the exam once before.

“I would definitely try again if I don’t get through this time,” Qian said. “I’ll keep on trying even if the success ratio is 1:100 or 1:1,000.” Qian passed the written exam last year but could not get past the first round of interview for a job in the Ministry of Commerce.

Even if candidates fail to clear the national civil services exam, they still have the chance of passing the provincial service tests.

Sun Han, a student of Zhejiang University’s law department, said: “I know the chance is slim but I will still try. I have prepared for the test for six months, and in case I fail in the national level test, I still have a chance to take a test in my hometown in Hangzhou in January for a job.”

The provincial civil service test is much like the national exam but offers posts in local government departments.

The severe competition this year has made authorities tighten supervision, too. Radio management departments and police have taken steps to prevent candidates from cheating by using mobile phones or radio sets. A person found cheating will be banned from taking exams for five years.

Beijing offers incentive for hiring laid-off workers

BEIJING, Nov 23 (Reuters) – The Beijing city government has offered a subsidy to firms willing to give a job to laid-off workers, Chinese media said on Sunday, in the latest instance of local governments trying to combat rising risks of unemployment.

Companies willing to employ the unemployed could get up to 10,000 yuan a year per worker for the next three to five years, according to a report by the China News Service, citing the capital’s labour bureau.

Faced with the prospect of declining orders for the export sector, China’s central government has announced a 4 trillion yuan stimulus package which has been matched by 10 trillion yuan in projects announced by several provinces.

Local governments, which must fight to preserve jobs or run the risk of potentially destabilizing unemployed workers, have announced a series of ad hoc policies.

Hubei Province, in central China, earlier this month ordered state-owned companies to reduce salaries before cutting staff, the Xinhua news agency reported on Nov. 18. Large and medium-sized state-owned companies would need to seek government approval for lay-offs involving at least 50 people, it said.

In southern China, workers at some shuttered factories have had their unpaid back wages guaranteed by local governments, often in direct response to protests.

The export hub of Dongguan, in Southern China, in October set up a 1 billion yuan rescue fund for small and medium-sized businesses hurt by the global crisis.

PwC to hire in China, invests for long term

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC.UL plans to hire about 2,000 graduates in China in 2009, part of its long-term plan to expand in the country despite the global credit crunch, its top China head said on Monday.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the world’s “Big Four” auditing firms, also plans to retain this pace of hiring for the next three to five years and will open new offices in the vast country “very soon” to support its rapid business growth, said Frank Lyn, Beijing-based China Markets Leader of PwC.

Lyn also noted that Chinese companies with ambitions to expand in the West through mergers and acquisitions could wait another six to nine months when deals are expected to be cheaper.

“The current economic crisis is something that everyone is very, very concerned about,” Lyn told Reuters in an interview in Shanghai, China’s financial hub.

“But if you take a longer-term view and the fact that we’re here to stay, we are not just hiring for now but ready to train our people for the next five to 10 years,” he said.

On average, it takes three to five years to groom a graduate to the level of a senior associate in PwC, Lyn added.

Last year, PwC hired 1,800 graduates and 800 experienced executives in China, Lyn said, adding it would be difficult to forecast how many experienced staff would be hired next year because the market environment will be different.

PwC has around 11,000 employees in China, Hong Kong and Macau where the firm operates a total of 13 offices.

Globally, PwC runs offices in 153 countries with more than 155,000 staff.

In China, PwC’s major rivals include Ernst & Young ERNY.UL, Deloitte & Touche DLTE.UL and KPMG KPMG.UL, while it is also facing growing challenges from smaller local firms as China’s Ministry of Finance is keen to strengthen the country’s own accounting industry.

LET VALUATIONS SETTLE

PwC became the official auditor for the listing of Bank of China (601988.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (3988.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in 2006, China’s top foreign exchange lender, which marked one of the world’s biggest initial public offering of shares that year.

Besides Bank of China, many Chinese clients of PwC are big state-owned enterprises such as PetroChina Co Ltd (601857.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and China United Telecommunications Co Ltd (600050.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Big Asian firms, especially from China and Japan, are widely expected by Wall Street to make investments in the near future in the United States, where companies such as General Electric Co (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) or 3Com (COMS.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are keen to lure foreign capital to support growth amid the credit crunch.

Chinese companies “should not stop doing so but should really pause and let the valuations settle,” said Lyn, referring to firms with ambition to expand abroad.

“We still believe we have to go out there and do the outbound investment for a variety of reasons — buying technology, expertise, market share and so on,” he said.

“You’ll see in six to nine months, the activities will pick up and that’s my personal view purely from the value perspective,” he added.

Shanghai to recruit Wall St, City financial talent

SHANGHAI, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Officials from Shanghai, China’s financial hub, will travel to the United States and Europe next month on a recruiting mission, potentially offering jobs to fund managers, policy analysts and others left jobless by the financial crisis.

Wu Jianrong, deputy director of the Shanghai Financial Service Office, told the official Xinhua news agency on Friday that the delegation would go to London, Chicago and New York in search of employees.

Financial institutions in Shanghai listed more than 170 vacancies specifically for foreigners as of Nov. 19, Xinhua quoted Sheng Yuruo, the office’s human resources head, as saying.

Thousands of investment banking jobs have been axed on Wall Street and the City of London as the global financial crisis has pushed some of the industry’s biggest names into bankruptcy or buyouts.

Shanghai hopes to recruit specialists in such areas as risk management and control, asset management, product research and development, macroeconomics and policy analysis, the Xinhua report said.

Institutions looking for staff include the China Financial Futures Exchange, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shanghai Futures Exchange, securities agencies, insurance companies and banks, it added.

Sheng said detailed information would be available on the websites sjr.sh.gov.cn, 21cnhr.gov.cn and www.sh.xinhuanet.com. (Reporting by Edmund Klamann; editing by Simon Jessop)

China Online Job Hunters Totaled 118.726mn

BEIJING, Nov 07, 2008 China’s online recruiting websites lured 118.726 million individual members and 7.65 million company members as of Q3 2008, respectively leaping 70% and 34% from a year ago, according to a recent report by technology, media and telecom (TMT) market researcher Analysys International.
The top three recruiting websites, 51job, Inc. (Nasdaq: JOBS), ChinaHR.com Corporation, and Zhaopin.com respectively had 37.10 million, 23.15 million, and 14.90 million registered job hunters, as well as 1.01 million, 1.038 million, and 420,000 company members.

Efficient browsing time of Chinese online recruiting websites increased to 16.22 million hours in September from 14.11 million in August, representing an increase of 15%. And the number is forecast to grow further in October, according to an earlier report.

Monthly coverage index increased 4.1% from the comparable period one year ago. The top six recruiting websites all saw their efficient browsing hours climb during the period. Yingjiesheng.com, a recruiting website especially for new graduates, witnessed its efficient browsing hours rise drastically by 273.7%.

Importing the China work ethic

A group of talented graduates flew in from Beijing this month, to take part in a flagship work experience scheme. This joint UK-China Government initiative gives top Chinese graduates the opportunity to learn about UK culture and working life.

The scheme, which was announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown during a visit to China in 2004, was set up to strengthen education and business links between China and the UK. Over 160 graduates have since taken up internships around the UK.

Thirty-one of the newest interns were welcomed at a reception organised by GTI Recruiting Solutions, at the Barbican in London. The graduates were fresh from spending two weeks at Regents College on a special induction to working life in the UK.

Employers and current interns were on hand to offer advice at the reception event. Philip Morgan from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills congratulated the graduates and advised them to, “work hard and make the most of their internship, making sure they visited as much of the country as possible during their stay.”

The candidates went through an intense selection process to be awarded a place on the programme, and are out to impress. For most, it is their first opportunity to experience life outside China and to gain work experience. They are very enthusiastic about their placements and the experiences they will have in the UK.

Intern Nan Zhang, explained why the programme means so much to her: “One of my friends once told me that ‘Life is a journey. Enjoy the ride’. For me, the reception event formally brought me into the field of work in the UK. This is a brand new journey for me to enjoy and an exciting adventure for me to attempt.’

A host of UK businesses are taking part, offering paid internships in a range of job functions, from marketing and HR, through to engineering, finance and project management. Employers are impressed with their interns, and their businesses are gaining much from the initiative. Paula Quinton-Jones, Graduate Resourcing & Development Manager for Europe at Standard Chartered Bank, who has taken on four interns, says “We’re delighted with the calibre of our interns – they are already making a fantastic contribution to our business”.

This is echoed by the recruitment team at Swiss Re who are set to expand in China, “We have launched an Asia Development Programme and a global graduate programme that includes China – so the UK-China Graduate Work Experience Programme is an ideal way to raise our profile among graduates in China.”

Employers offering the latest internships are Antonov, Associated Newspapers, British Sugar, Diageo, Euromoney, Halcrow, KL Communications, Lawson Dodd, Mazars, Norton Rose, Pinsent Mason, PwC, Rolls–Royce, Standard Chartered and Unilever.

The recruitment process is managed by GTI Recruiting Solutions, on behalf of the UK Government. As well as ensuring employers are matched with the graduates with the right skills and experience, GTI Recruiting Solutions takes care of all the administration required to bring the interns to the UK and provide pastoral care during their time here.

“New employers from all sectors are always welcome to the programme. If you need English-speaking talent with Chinese language skills, a strong education and a powerful will to succeed then let us know. We deal with all visa issues to make life easy for supporting employers and offer pastoral care for the interns outside the work place,” says GTI Recruiting Solutions Director Paul Clark, “Our aim here is to ensure the employers have the opportunity to offer work experience to graduate talent they are unlikely to reach. We have been hugely impressed by the hunger of these graduates and the determination to succeed.”

Looking for a New Job? Follow the Money

When the economy took a turn for the worse in October, many recruiters began fearing for their own jobs. The good news is that some companies are still thriving. To predict a company’s financial health and penchant for hiring, look no further than its customer base.

“This downturn is really a mosaic, not a uniform event,” says Kip Cassino, VP of research for Borrell Associates. “You can’t just look at the national trends to judge which industries or companies might be hiring; you’ll have to do some rigorous homework.”

Here’s an example of what Cassino is describing.

News reports frequently cite the construction industry as being highly impacted by the weak economy, but lingering below the surface-level macro data are some exceptions. Firms that build hospitals, schools, bridges, or power plants may have a healthy pipeline of projects around the globe. Customer demand for goods and services and geographic footprint determine how the economy is impacting each company or industry sub-segment and its economic outlook.

In addition to traditionally recession-resistant industries like healthcare and education, transportation and information services appear to be fairly strong during this downturn, according to Cassino, while recruiters will have to carefully research opportunities within the durable and non-durable goods manufacturing industry, because it is a mixed bag. Real estate is slowly being reignited by a buyer’s market, and when you get beyond Wall Street, even the financial services industry isn’t all bad.

Also, growth-oriented, mid-size companies may be a source of opportunities for recruiters with large-corporation recruiting experience and know-how.

Despite a few bright spots, recruiters are facing some headwinds. A search on the online job posting consolidator Indeed reveals 6,705 open recruiter positions nationwide, 3,937 of those in corporations and 2,744 in staffing agencies. Temporary help led all industries in the number of initial unemployment claims filed in October, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the entire industry accounts for only 787 open recruiter positions on Indeed.

The slowdown dovetailed with a decline in U.S. new job creation and a subsequent pullback by increasingly wary passive job seekers. The number of employed people planning to look for new jobs declined 7.5 % between Nov. 2006 and March 2007, and the numbers have since continued to decline, leaving recruiters to refill a dwindling number of vacant positions. Cassino’s view is that there won’t be a significant uptick in hiring until 2010 to 2011, mostly fueled by vacancies created by retiring baby boomers.

Shanghai companies train staff amid storm

Local enterprises and trade unions are working aggressively to limit unemployment following the central government’s call for domestic firms to nurture confidence in the face of the global financial crisis.

More than 200 local enterprises, mostly technology and manufacturing companies, promised recently not to lay off employees during the crisis but instead invest more in training and technological innovation.

The move, initiated by Shanghai Minhang district federation of trade unions, is designed to help local enterprises cope with the global economic turmoil and maintain stable social and economic development.

Sun Yaohui, vice-president of the trade union, said: “So far the government has introduced a series of measures to boost confidence among enterprises.

“Surely, trade unions now should unite with workers and business enterprises to overcome difficulties and strive for building a harmonious and stable society,” he said.

“That can to some extent help reduce some pressure on the government.”

Earlier this month, the ministry of human resources and social security urged state-owned enterprises to avoid large-scale job cuts.

The global financial crisis could worsen the already grim job market, Yin Weimin, the minister of human resources and social security, said.

Sun cited the Shanghai-based Baolima Technology Company, which produces mainly mobile phone keyboards and auto parts, as an exemple of the current fight.

Affected by the rising price of raw materials, the company foresees a sharp decrease in orders this year.

But it has still recruited more than 70 production line workers and engineers, Sun said.

Attributing its current difficulties to an irrational product mix, Baolima quickly set about redressing it.

It also launched a series of staff training programs to help improve productivity.

This year the company will send a total of 150 employees abroad for up to three months training.

One of them, Lu Peipei, a production line worker at Baolima Company, said three months of professional training makes workers much more efficient.

Chinese companies look to Wall Street for talent

Chinese recruiter Career International announced today it is preparing to go to Wall Street to find financial talent for its domestic clients, the first time for a local human resources company to directly find overseas financial expertise for Chinese enterprises.

Gao Yong, president of the Beijing-based HR company, told China Daily that this is an ideal time for businesses to recruit high-quality personnel engaged in finance, since the financial tsunami has led to laid-offs of banking and financing talents, who have greatly reduced their package expectations.

Meanwhile, unemployed Wall Street staff, with rich experience and professional skills, is eyeing huge opportunities in emerging market, like China and India.

Career International will soon put recruitment ads in the Wall Street Journal and its website and organize teams to hold job fairs in the United States to attract Wall Street talents.