Archives 2013

Job-hopping sneaks in early

Year of the Snake not seen as very auspicious for the Chinese economy

The peak season for job-hopping in 2013 came earlier than usual because of economic uncertainty.

Some employees started to consider moving on even before the Spring Festival this year, much earlier than the usual peak season in March and April.

The months after the Lunar New Year are traditionally the best to find a new job because companies have completed their recruitment plans for the year and consequently just released job vacancies.

The year-end bonus is another important motivation for job-hoppers who leave their positions after the festival.

But the situation is different this year.

Pessimism about the industries affected by the economic downturn encouraged employees to search for new jobs as soon as possible, said experts.

It forced businesses to start looking for new staff before the festival to cope with the exodus of existing workers.

Many enterprises adjusted their strategies in 2012 so it is understandable that employees are not sure about their company’s future during this period, said Liu Xingyang, a senior human resource expert with ChinaHR.com, the Chinese subsidiary of Monster Worldwide.

Employees complained about chaotic management and started to look for new jobs earlier in 2013, he said.

About 27 percent of the job-hoppers said they were quitting because of their company’s poor prospects, according to a report on job-hopping from ChinaHR.com.

Zhang Gang, a manager at a real estate agency in Beijing, said he started looking for a new job early on and hoped to settle down in one before the festival.

“I want to get an ideal position before the festival, also before plenty of other people start chasing just one job,” Zhang said in January.

Zhang said lack of job security in real estate drove him back to the consumer industry, in which he used to work.

The 28-year old said his salary was 50,000 yuan ($8,035) a month during the good times but now its is less than 50 percent of that.

“This year’s bonus will not be particularly attractive either,” he said. “It is not wise to wait for it.”

Many companies reduced pay rises this year because of fears about the economy, the main reason chosen by 26 percent of job-hoppers looking to move on, according to ChinaHR’s report.

The recruitment agency interviewed a selection of businesses. Only 0.8 percent of them said they will increase their employees’ salaries by 20 percent or more in 2013. The percentage was 2.7 percent in 2012.

The number of companies awarding pay rises between 11 and 20 percent also fell from 16.7 percent in 2012 to a predicted 11.2 percent in 2013, according to the agency’s report.

Meanwhile, the continuous rise of the consumer price index, which measures inflation, caused employees’ living costs to increase, leading to high expectations over salary rises to relieve financial pressures.

“If their expectations are not achieved, they will have to find new jobs,” said Liu Xiangyang.

ChinaHR.com also discovered financial, real estate and electric appliance manufacturing industries have more job-hoppers compared with other industries so far this year.

Employees in the financial industry are more sensitive to rising incomes and they feel the need for a higher quality of life, Liu said.

Some have chosen to weather the economic ill winds, while some have decided to leave.

Wang Li, a 27-year-old woman who has worked for an accounting firm in Beijing for three years, said she was asked to take five days of unpaid leave by the end of 2012. She used to be too busy to take year-end leave in the years before 2012.

Wang said she had less work to do recently and was not sure about her year-end bonus, although she received a 20-percent salary rise last October.

However, she said she and her colleagues would try to keep their jobs.

“It is not a good time to be quitting the job because the whole industry faces economic problems and there are few job opportunities in the market at the moment,” she said.

Wang has good reasons for believing that.

American Express Co, the US multinational financial services corporation headquartered in New York, plans to eliminate 5,400 staff jobs in order to cut costs and adjust its business, the company said on Jan 10.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the US investment banking firm, said in July last year it would cut 1,000 staff worldwide.

“Keeping one’s current job is a wise decision just now,” said Huang Yi, a 23-year-old woman who has worked for one of the so-called “Big Four” accountancy firms since July last year.

If the employees really want to change jobs, the automotive and retail industries would be good choices, experts said.

“The automotive market and retail industries will both be very active,” said Max Price, a partner at Antal China, a United Kingdom recruitment and headhunting company.

He said there is lots of organic growth forecast within the sectors.

Companies in these industries want experienced people rather than fresh graduates, which will lure some job-hoppers.

But Price nonetheless suggested people should be cautious about changing jobs and should stay three to five years with a company before moving on to a new role.

“Job-hopping every two or three years is terrible for career development in the long term,” he said.

Chizhou Hosts Campaign to Promote Women’s Employment

The Chizhou Women’s Federation hosted a job fair especially for migrant workers in Chizhou City in east China’s Anhui Province, on February 5 and 6, 2013, providing a number of suitable opportunities for rural laborers, which benefited many local women.

The job fair had 30 stands providing services for employment and entrepreneurship. More than 30 employing units attended the job fair, providing more than 2,000 work positions, which attracted more than 2,000 rural laborers and migrant workers who had returned to their home town during the Spring Festival. More than 800, including about 250 women, signified employment intentions during the two-day job fair.

The Chizhou Women’s Federation distributed more than 500 brochures publicizing policies about small loans for women, safeguarding women’s rights, and fighting against domestic violence.

President of the Chizhou Women’s Federation Tao Xulin and Vice President of the Chizhou Women’s Federation Wang Cuixiang talked with rural women at the job fair, encouraging them to work near their hometowns. They also encouraged them to attend professional housekeeping skills training and widen their scope for employment.

China created 12.7 million urban jobs in 2012 – ministry

China created 12.7 million new jobs in urban areas in 2012, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said on Friday.

The increase from 2011’s 12.2 million new urban jobs left China’s urban jobless rate steady at 4.1 percent at the end of 2012 – the 10th straight quarter officials say it has been at that level.

The urban jobless rate is China’s only official unemployment indicator, but analysts say it grossly underestimates the true level of unemployment because it excludes about 250 million migrant workers from its surveys.

The National Bureau of Statistics said last week that China had created 11.9 million jobs in 2012 in urban areas. The differing numbers highlight the discrepancies in China’s employment data which feed analysts’ doubts.

Economists at Nomura in Hong Kong said other data signalled that China’s labour market had tightened in the fourth quarter of 2012, with an index of the ratio of urban labour demand to supply rising to 1.08 from 1.05 in Q3 – its highest since the index was first published in 2002.

A group of about 20 migrant workers from Dalian in China’s northeastern Liaoning province were demonstrating outside the labour ministry on Friday as the jobless data was presented at a news conference, demanding the ministry help them collect unpaid wages after completing work on a construction project.

China’s migrant workers are the backbone of the country’s labour force, working mainly in low paid jobs on construction sites and in factories.

Beijing has mandated that minimum wages rise at least 13 percent a year during the course of the current five-year plan that runs to 2015.

The same plan mandates annual increases in urban and rural household incomes of more than 7 percent, which would result in them doubling over 10 years.

The labour ministry said on Friday that 25 of China’s 32 provinces raised minimum wages at an average of 20.2 percent in 2012.

In 2011, 24 provinces increased minimum wages by an average of 22 percent. In 2010, 30 provinces delivered increases of an average of 22.8 percent.

The most recent data available shows minimum wages in 2011 ranged from 1,500 yuan (152.79 pounds) per month in Shenzhen, the highest, to 870 yuan in Chongqing, the lowest.

The disparity of incomes has become a politically sensitive issue in China over the last decade as the gap between rich and poor has widened into a chasm.

About 13 percent of China’s 1.3 billion people still live on less than $1.25 (79 pence) per day according to the United Nations Development Programme and average urban disposable income is just 21,810 yuan a year.

Meanwhile China has 2.7 million U.S. dollar millionaires and 251 billionaires, according to the Hurun Report.

Higher degrees worth less in job searches in China this year

As the Spring Festival is coming to an end, graduate students may find it harder to get a desirable job than usual, as a recent survey shows that only 29 percent of students with master’s degrees have secured jobs, down from last year.

A survey conducted from December last year to January 2013 by My China Occupational Skills (MyCOS), a higher education consulting and outcome evaluation facility in China, found that only 29 percent of the graduate students surveyed have found jobs, seven percentage points lower than last year, Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

The survey collected 10,940 valid questionnaires, of which 3,802 were from graduate students, 3,699 from undergraduates and 3,439 from graduates of vocational training schools.

According to the survey, 35 percent of postgraduates with an employment history have signed for a job, while 47 percent of fourth-year undergraduates with internship experience have signed, compared to the overall rate of 38 percent.

Another survey by MyCOS found that as of November 14, 2012, employment pressure on postgraduates has increased by three percentage points compared with the same period last year, while pressure for undergraduates has dropped by six percentage points.

“I’ve spent three years and tens of thousands of yuan getting a master’s degree, but ended up with so much difficulty in finding a job… It feels like my graduate school years were a total waste,” a graduate student, who wished to be called Li Yan, at the Central China Normal University was quoted by the Outlook Weekly as saying.

Internet start-ups ease China’s employment pressure

Chinese young people are seriously considering making a living online as the economic slowdown bites China’s more conventional jobs market.

An Internet business boom has helped create more than 10 million jobs in China, which greatly alleviates current employment pressure, according to a new report by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS).

The report, the first of its kind by the ministry, showed that young people made up the majority of those involved in Internet entrepreneurship, including online shop owners and employees, as well as practitioners in areas closely related to e-commerce.

“The Internet goes beyond physical restrictions, so our power can be magnified to an enormous scale,” Li Xueling, founder and CEO of Chinese social platform company YY Inc. was quoted as saying by Tuesday’s edition of the People’s Daily.

Li, whose company made its NASDAQ debut in November 2012, said the Internet quickens the process of trial and error in entrepreneurship, citing the example of a college graduate who was made a millionaire by teaching others how to make PowerPoint files online.

Internet business also allows more freedom and diversity in employment choices, according to the MHRSS report.

In 2012, a record 6.8 million people graduated from universities in China. Yet a large number of graduates were unable to land a job due to a discrepancy between the workforce and the actual needs of the economy.

Some of the jobless new grads may have flowed to the more flexible online commerce.

The MHRSS report showed that almost half of Internet practitioners surveyed own an associate degree or bachelor’s degree, and another 33.4 percent received education from middle schools or technical schools. People with strong backgrounds in marketing, management, technology and law are most needed, it said.

Many young entrepreneurs said online business helps lower costs and increase efficiency, and also offers opportunities to make friends and find fun.

Moreover, the flourishing of Internet economics makes consumers more confident and comfortable with buying online, especially amid a current crisis of confidence in the country’s commercial activities, the report said.

Taobao.com, a leading Chinese online shopping platform, sees an average of 18 million transactions each day, representing millions of deals closed on mutual trust and the guarantee of contracts, according to the People’s Daily.

To further boost employment through online business, more measures, including credit support and tax exemptions should be rolled out to help small start-ups stay sound financially, the MHRSS suggested in the report.

Authorities should also guide private funds to invest in Internet businesses with potential for growth, the ministry added.

“The Internet makes improbable things possible. That is the most inspiring thing of our time,” Li said.

Comrise Expands Data Science Campus Recruiting Program to China

Comrise, a global consulting firm with headquarters in the U.S and China, is pleased to announce the expansion of its Data Science Campus Recruiting Program into China.

After the overwhelming success that Comrise, a global consulting firm with headquarters in the U.S and China, had during its nationwide Campus Recruiting Program, it is pleased to announce its expansion of the program into China.

“Our main focus right now is providing Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and strong Analytics Professionals to organizations in both the U.S. and China,” says Rob Bigini , VP of Operations at Comrise. “Our Campus Recruiting Program – combined with strong ties to Universities across the globe, and 30 years of experience in Staff Supplementation, Permanent Placement and Project Based Solutions – allows us to do just that.”

Over the past few months Comrise traveled to nearly a dozen prominent U.S. universities to recruit analytical talent for its “Big Data” training courses in ECL (Enterprise Control Language) – a query and control language, and HPCC (High Performance Computing Cluster) Systems – a data-intensive supercomputing platform, as well as for its clients and in-house Data Science Graduate Programme.

With nine offices between China and Hong Kong, Comrise is perfectly positioned to expand these offerings to graduate students overseas. Among the universities already visited by Comrise are Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, as well as Sichuan University and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu.

Comrise’s Chengdu office is in the process of expanding and moving into a new, 1,200 square meter office space, so it will serve as headquarters for the Data Science Graduate Programme in China. Students accepted into this program will participate in a “Big Data” training course before working on Big Data Proof of Concepts for client companies.

Organizations interested in hiring “Big Data” talent (i.e., Data Scientists, Data Engineers, Data Analysts, etc.), please e-mail marketing@comrise.com.

About Comrise:
Established in 1984, Comrise is a global consulting firm with headquarters in the U.S. and China. Our teams specialize in Managed IT, Big Data, and Workforce Solutions – Staff Augmentation, Recruiting, RPO, and Payrolling.

Job hunting in the Chinese New Year

With the smell of fireworks hanging in the air, we are rushing headlong into the Lunar New Year holiday. Common sense tells us to put our feet up and spend time with the family, and begin the job search again with a new sense of urgency after the holiday. After all, hiring managers are winding down, human resource professionals are busy with annual pay reviews, promotions and the endless year-end reports.

However, a lot of evidence would suggest that this is currently the best time to be searching for a new job. Firstly, your competition (i.e. other job hunters) is probably thinking “I’ll wait”; this makes it the best time for you to step up your job search. Research shows that calling off your job search is very counter-productive; instead of waiting, now is the time to redouble your effort to find that ideal new job, and gain an advantage over your relaxed competitors.

The other factor is, recruitment budgets are still there and HR people are still coming to work every day, looking for candidates. There is a great deal of pressure on managers to have people in place before the Golden period begins.

“During this time of year, I get so many calls from managers telling me how urgent their vacancies are and how few CVs they are receiving. They push me very hard. Candidates who make themselves available for interview, who answer their phones, who return emails the same day have a huge advantage at this time of year,” a Shanghai-based colleague told me.

So what are some of the proactive things that you can do? For one thing, make sure that your online presence is up to date. Touch base with any recruiters and HR people who have connected with you through LinkedIn during the past year. Make sure your profile clearly details your experience and strengths. It’s a great time to get in touch with any companies you interviewed within the past year. Send an e-card wishing them a happy holiday and remind them that you are available; they might have a new opening in their organisation that you are unaware of. Thirdly attend as many of those holiday parties as you can. Every business chamber and networking organisation holds one at this time of year; get out there and press the flesh.

And whilst we are on the topic, let’s remind ourselves of the few key points when planning a career change:

* Be very clear about what you bring to the table. Start by writing down your key skills and accomplishments, and then build the case for hiring you around those.
* Make sure that you are applying for the right jobs. It is too easy to fire your CV off to a hundred online postings that mention one key word you are interested in, but this is a waste of your time. Be realistic, and only target organisations that you want to work for.
* Use your network to better target your ideal jobs. Use Linkedin to see how many of your connections work in the company you are applying to.

Once you have got the interview, it is really important to be able to convince people that you have what it takes to succeed. Employers are looking for good cultural fits; you have to show that you understand that. Be clear about your salary and your expectations. Any sign of an ‘errrr’ or an ‘ummm’ before answering raises doubts in the interviewers mind. Demonstrate your worth by providing clear examples of where and when you have exceeded expectations in a similar role.

Follow the steps above and you’ll beat the competition to your new job, even in the so-called slowest period of the year.

HP tightens guidelines on China labour

Hewlett-Packard has issued new guidelines to its Chinese suppliers aimed at reducing the long hours worked by temporary student workers and ensuring that their recruitment process complies with local regulations.

The exploitation of students has been rife across the electronics supplier industry in China, as companies resort to hiring large numbers of temporary workers when orders for electronic gadgets spike, because of a product launch or seasonal demand.

HP’s supplier guidelines, issued on Friday, stipulated that all work must be voluntary, and local regulations regarding minimum working age and work environments must be adhered to. In addition, HP said it would ask suppliers to ensure that students would be asked to work only if working at the supplier “complemented the primary area of study” of the student.

Investigations into temporary work by labour activists in China have revealed a pattern of municipal governments requiring students to work at factories in the local area, as well as students frequently working long hours at companies that had little relevance to their studies.

HP said it had developed the guidelines in tandem with China’s Center for Child Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility. The group’s executive director, Sanna Johnson, said the guidelines were a “clear recognition” of the company’s commitment to its workforce.

Geoff Crothall, communications director at China Labour Bulletin, a lobby group in Hong Kong, was sceptical that the guidelines and proposed audits by the company, which has more than 1,000 production suppliers spanning 45 countries and territories, would be effective.

“How are they going to follow through,” said Mr Crothall. “It’s not up to them how a supplier factory recruits, it is up to the factory.” Mr Crothall said that it was the demands by the electronics industry for flexibility and lean inventories that “created the problem [of a temporary student workforce] in the first place”.

Mr Crothall said that revision to China’s laws with regard to labour contracts made late last year, which were intended to crackdown on the widespread use of temporary contract labour, meant that all companies would have to be more vigilant on this issue. As many as 60m workers in China were employed by labour agencies across the country, he said. Numbers of temporary workers surged after China put in place new labour laws in 2008.

Mr Crothall said that the only way to ensure compliance was not by sending in auditors and periodically collecting information, but by allowing independent unions in factories and ensuring there was collective bargaining. “You can’t send in auditors a few times a year. Workers get bonuses for giving the right answers and penalised for giving the wrong ones,” he said.

Foxconn, which is under pressure from Apple to improve its workplace conditions, said on Monday that it would allow genuinely representative union elections for its 1.2m workers in China from next year.

Talent pool proves engine of success

50 universities, colleges provide strong, reliable workforce for southwestern city

Ask Liu Jia which city he would choose if he had to re-launch his business, and his answer is unequivocal: “Chengdu, definitely Chengdu.”

Liu is chief operating officer of Goodteam Studio, an APP development firm based in Chengdu, and he insists the southwest inland city is quite simply unequalled as a source of the kind of top talent he needs to remain competitive, not just in China, but globally.

Goodteam became top 10 on the Google Play store in terms of revenue in 2012, with more than 40 million downloads worldwide.

The young COO adds that even if one day he plans to open offices in other cities, its R&D team will still be based in Chengdu, because it harbors a pool of IT talent unavailable elsewhere.

As China’s economy remains robust, cities across the country are thirsty for talent. Yet at the same time, they are being scorched by rising labor costs.

However, Chengdu’s talent pool remains healthy, fed by more than 50 universities and colleges that provide around 150,000 graduates every year.

“Businesses here enjoy relatively low labor costs as well as low turnover rates,” said Liu Jianing, head of the investment sales division of Chengdu Investment Promotion Commission.

He reckons that compared with coastal cities, labor costs and turnover rates in Chengdu are a quarter to a third lower.

“We have a comprehensive talent pool, from management to skilled workers,” added Liu.

Chengdu’s reputation for providing the very best talent has also grown outside of China.

ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy headquartered in Chicago, is a good example.

It has set up its software technology company in the city staffed by 50 recruits, 35 of whom are local IT graduates.

ThoughtWorks is well-known in the industry for intensive recruitment processes, with numerous rounds of interviews often spread over weeks.

“When we choose a city to start our business, the only thing we care about is whether there is enough talent,” said Xiong Jie, ThoughtWorks’ office director in Chengdu, who stresses that a lack of talent can be a real problem in the IT industry.

Xiong added that countries including Australia, the US and many in Europe are facing a lack of talented IT staff, but China is rich with potential stars in many cities including Chengdu.

According to the 2012 Chengdu Investment Guide, produced by Chengdu Information Office, there were 58,243 IT graduates in the city, meaning one in five graduates in the city is either a programmer or a software engineer.

“Companies like us are always in hot pursuit of programmers. That’s why we come here,” said Xiong, a 32-year-old from Chongqing, a municipality just an hour’s train ride from Chengdu.

The city’s 2012 investment guide claims that 233 of the Fortune 500 companies have a presence in Chengdu, including global giants such as Intel and IBM, which have set up research labs in cooperation with universities in Chengdu.

Companies have also built 180 training bases to better prepare their potential employees when they are still on campus, says the guide.

Besides holding onto its own local talent, the Chengdu government also goes to other big cities like Beijing and Shanghai to attract talented recruits for its IT industry, added Liu Jianing, head of Chengdu Investment Promotion Commission’s investment sales division.

“Sichuan province used to be known as a great source of labor, but now we are seeing the opposite trend in some of our industries,” said Liu.

“Low living costs, comfortable lifestyle and weather, low stress and large job opportunities are Chengdu’s great advantages in attracting talents to come here to work.”

The latest list of the 10 happiest Chinese cities, based on a survey conducted by Oriental Outlook magazine and the China Association of Mayors, released in December, had Chengdu and Hangzhou at the top of the list.

According to a human resource report released in 2011 by 51job, a Chinese online jobseeker website, the turnover rate of software engineers with three-year experience in Chengdu is 8 percent, in stark contrast with Beijing’s 21 percent and Shenzhen’s 20 percent.

While MyCOS’s Fresh Graduates Employment Annual Report 2010 showed that Chengdu’s retention rate of fresh graduates was 61 percent, against 28 percent for another major information technology and education hub, Wuhan.

“Low turnover rates are good for company development in the long run. Our workforce and the huge reserves of talent we have get high praise from employers,” added Liu Jianing.

Qing Chuan is the manager of a drugs company, which produces sterile injection devices to American market, and he says Chengdu’s dependable workforce is crucial for the business.

“Because of high living costs in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, staff can move on quickly. The workforces there are not as stable as cities like Chengdu,” he said.

Qing added that the talent pool is especially strong for engineers, a sector particularly targeted by universities in Chengdu.

Game APPs developer Liu Jia says he is proud of his Chengdu team, all of which are local to the city. As the city’s APP developers continue to attract worldwide attention, Liu adds that he is getting regular enquiries from companies around the globe looking to send their staff to be trained by his company.

“Having a solid workforce means we can whole-heartedly devote ourselves to developing games.

“But in markets like Shanghai and Beijing, there are too many distractions and temptations.”

Li Yu in Chengdu contributed to this story

Cloud, programming top skills demand in China

Summary: The majority of IT job demands in China are focused on basic skills such as programming, but cloud and mobility will continue to drive IT employment for 2013.

Basic IT skills such as programming are highly sought after in China, but professionals with high-end skills are preferred in specific IT segments.

A spokesperson from Chinese job search site CJOL.com said that basic IT skills such as programming lead the demand in China. Citing statistics from its job board, she said companies looking for employees with basic IT skills account for some 70 percent of total advertisements.

Raymond Wong, general manager for IT and telecommunications (IT&T) at Hudson China, had a different view. He said cloud computing and mobile skills will continue to drive demand in the IT jobs market, while sectors such as big data and social network also have shown strong growth.

The CJOL spokesperson noted that cloud adoption has matured in China, so demand for IT professionals in this area will focus on high-end skills rather than the mid- to low-end talent pool.

“Currently, many large enterprises in China are researching cloud technologies or cloud-based services. Cloud computing has successfully moved beyond the internal IT system to become a public service, and has become a hot technology instead of an emerging technology.

“Experienced IT professionals are now beginning to move to cloud technology development,” said the spokesperson. “We predict that demand for cloud computing professionals will grow in 2013.”

She noted that business intelligence and big data are still new industries in China and will mature, though not reaching mainstream yet, in 2013.

IT job market slows in 2013

According to Wong, hiring expectations across all industries in China have dipped. “According to statistics in the Hudson Report, hiring expectation has fallen from 85 percent of employers willing to increase their headcounts in the first quarter of 2012 to 59.3 percent in this year’s first quarter,” he said.

Demand for IT&T professional is impacted as companies look to save budgets by cutting IT procurement. As a result, tech vendors will attempt to control cost due to unsatisfactory revenues, Wong said.

CJOL, however, is more optimistic for hiring activities in China this year. “Even though job demands after the Internet explosion have slowed, industries such as telecommunications, e-commerce, and enterprise applications have seen small increase in hiring,” she said.

She noted the IT hardware segment will likely see another stage of development, which will lead to increases in average salary and demand for IT professionals in this market.

“In 2013, the IT industry will continue to see extreme polarization in IT talent,” she added. “High-end IT professionals will [strive to] become more high end as demand [surpasses] supply, and their salary requirements increase. [The supply of] those with low-end skills will increase and [these professionals] will find it more difficult to find satisfactory jobs.”

Mixed preference for local companies

In a previous ZDNet Asia report, a recruiter said Chinese top-level executives working for multinational companies (MNCs) are not given sufficient management power. This had led to some executives preferring to leave their MNC jobs to lead local startups where their skills would be appreciated.

CJOL’s spokesperson said the high-level executives that the recruitment company spoke to expressed a preference to work in local companies. “The main reason for their limited management power in MNCs is the difference in cultural background and worldview between the Chinese employees and the foreign companies,” she explained, but noted that this scenario is not commonplace.

High-level executives prefer staying in local startups because they put more importance on salary and career development, she added.

“A lot of local companies offer competitive salary and development platform when compared with MNCs, which decreases the attractiveness of [working for a] foreign company,” the CJOL spokesperson said.

Hudson’s Wong, though, holds a different view. He said the trend of employees preferring local companies is not common, although it surfaced during the IPO boom in China in 2010. He said the top three aspects of an employer that currently attract IT&T professionals in China are: salary, cutting-edge technology, and world-class brand.