Category News of China

Rates may rise as jobless falls

UK unemployment unexpectedly fell in November by the most in almost two years and wage growth accelerated, adding to the case for higher interest rates, the statistics office said yesterday.

The number of Britons claiming jobless benefits fell by 5,700 to 950,800, the biggest drop since January 2005, the Office for National Statistics said in London. Economists expected unemployment claims to rise by 4,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 30 economists. The claimant count rate of unemployment was unchanged at three percent, Bloomberg News said.

Falling unemployment and bigger wage gains may add to concern that workers will boost pay demands at talks starting next month. Inflation quickened to the fastest pace in at least nine years last month, prompting investors to raise bets on the Bank of England raising interest rates next year.

“The labor market is rebounding strongly and that points to wages picking up,” said Raj Gunaratna, an economist at 4Cast Ltd, a research group in London. “The report gives the Bank of England more reasons to hike interest rates.”

The pound and interest-rate futures rose on speculation that the central bank will raise its benchmark rate again next year after two increases since August to five percent, a five-year high.

Higher energy bills pushed consumer prices up an annual 2.7 percent in November, the most since the index was introduced in January 1997, the statistics office said.

Wages growth excluding bonuses rebounded to an annual 3.8 percent from August through October from the 3.5 percent gain in the previous period, which was the slowest since July 2003.

UK employees at Ford Motor Co and Rolls Royce Plc, as well as air traffic controllers, are set to receive pay increases of more than four percent, said Ken Mulkearn, the editor of Incomes Data Services.

About 4,200 people working for financial-services companies and law firms in London will get bonuses of more than one million pounds (US$1.97 million) this year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Still, an influx of migrant workers and rising unemployment have kept a lid on workers’ average pay so far. Around half a million immigrants came to the UK from Eastern Europe last year, keeping wages “subdued,” and damping consumer prices, Deputy Governor Rachel Lomax said.

MySpace tops Yahoo for first time

NEW YORK (AP) — The online hangout MySpace got even more popular in November, beating Yahoo in Web traffic for the first time, a research company said Tuesday.

News Corp.’s MySpace recorded 38.7 billion U.S. page views last month, compared with 38.1 billion for Yahoo Inc., according to comScore Media Metrix. MySpace’s growth was 2 percent over October and triple the 12.5 billion recorded in November 2005.

The numbers underscore the rapid rise of a social-networking site that encourages visitors to stay and make friends through free tools for messaging, sharing photos and creating personal pages known as profiles.

ComScore warned, however, that a one-month change could represent an aberration. Furthermore, Yahoo’s page views could be diminished by the company’s growing use of Ajax technology for maps, e-mail and other services.

Ajax is a set of tools that speeds up Web applications by summoning snippets of data as needed instead of pulling entire Web pages over and over.

Yahoo, which last week announced a major reorganization after finding itself repeatedly beat in advertising sales by rival Google Inc., still remains the leader in unique audience, with 130 million visitors in November. (Full story)

“Yahoo continues to be the overall Web audience leader with the largest number of unique users and most time spent online. The page view change in November is related to the use of Ajax and other Web 2.0 technologies across the Yahoo network,” Yahoo spokeswoman Nissa Anklesaria said Tuesday.

“These technologies enhance the overall user experience, but do not either generate a page view or qualify to be counted as a page view while the user is engaged with the product,” she said,

Fox Interactive Media ranked sixth at 73.8 million, including 57.2 million for MySpace. Unique audience is a measure of how many people visit in any given month; page views reflect how often they come back and how long they stay.

Including other Fox properties such as IGN Entertainment Inc., comScore said Fox had 39.5 billion page views in November. In a statement, Peter Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, credited strong traffic at game site IGN.com due to the release of Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Co.’s Wii video game consoles.

ComScore had planned to release the numbers Wednesday or Thursday, but word of the figures leaked in an analyst report from UBS Investment Research.

Citigroup appoints a new COO charged to slash costs

CITIGROUP yesterday promoted Robert Druskin to chief operating officer and told him to cut costs at the world’s largest financial-services company.

Druskin’s job will be to “make sure we have the most efficient and effective operations in the business,” Chief Executive Officer Charles Prince said yesterday.

Citigroup’s operating costs rose 13 percent in the first nine months of this year, Bloomberg news reported yesterday.

Druskin, 59, will remain head of the corporate and investment banking unit, and join Prince and former United States Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in the chairman’s office.

Prince is under pressure to increase Citigroup’s stock price as shareholders, including Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, demand that he take steps to revive earnings growth.

Speculation mounted last week that New York-based Citigroup would break itself up or that Chief Financial Officer Sallie Krawcheck would leave, suggestions Prince dismissed as baseless.

“The market is looking for a lot of things at Citi, one of them was a spinoff of the businesses,” said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors, who manages US$270 million and doesn’t own Citigroup shares.

“The market was looking for a whole lot more” than Druskin’s promotion, he said.

Prince ruled out a breakup and said no more changes were planned.

Shares trail

Citigroup’s stock rose US$1.03 yesterday to US$52.88 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading before the management change was announced.

Shares of Citigroup are up 9 percent this year, trailing the 20 percent advance of JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America’s 14 percent gain.

Druskin has previously served as Prince’s deputy, and helped former CEO Sanford Weill integrate many of the more than 100 acquisitions that went into building Citigroup, Schutz said.

Druskin will be Citigroup’s first COO since Robert Willumstad resigned in July 2005.

Citigroup’s 5 percent increase in revenue was outpaced operating costs, which swelled to US$38.1 billion in the first nine months of 2006.

Daily economic round-up

The strength in the pipeline of the economy and the growing lack of skills required by employers is seen in the starting salaries for new graduates which are now said to be their best since the tech-boom period that ended in about 2000. The Australian Graduate Employers¡¯ 2007 survey reveals that vacancies have risen nearly 14 per cent compared to last year with median salaries climbing from $43,000 to $45,700 for 2007.

The Graduates Careers Australia research shows that just over 40 per cent of employers wanted to hire more graduates if they were available and just over half of those surveyed reported trouble recruiting in particular fields. About 23 per cent of companies had problems recruiting in the IT sector and about 19 per cent had problems finding graduates in mathematics, statistics and science.

Today Australia will continue talks with China on removing foreign equity restrictions on the legal, banking, insurance and education professions as part of ongoing free-trade talks. While Australia is attempting to protect the clothing, footwear and textiles industries and to improve the situation for the agricultural and services industries, China has called these industries sensitive.

Peter Bell

China might become US’s 3rd largest export market in ’07

Chinanews, Washington, Dec. 11 – Vice Minister of Commerce Ma Xiuhong recently said that if Sino-US trade could maintain the current growing momentum, China is expected to become the third largest export market for the United States next year.

She made the statement when delivering a speech in Washington last Thursday in her visit to the United States.

Since China established diplomatic ties with the United States 27 years ago, bilateral trade between the two countries has undergone fundamental changes and cooperation between the two countries has expanded to every part of the economic field. China and the United States have forged a pattern characterized by economic interdependence and mutual benefit, seeking win-win outcomes and mutual development. Over the past 27 years, Sino-US trade volume has increased 86-fold, with the United States now becoming China¡¯s second largest trade partner and China the third largest trade partner of the US, she said.

Since China joined the World Trade Organization five years ago, US export to China has witnessed the most rapid growth. During this time, US export trade volume to China has grown at an annual rate 4.9 times that of US export growth rates to other countries. In 2005, US export to China increased by 118% compared with 2001, far exceeding its export growth rates to other major export markets. In 2001, China was the ninth biggest export market of the US, whereas in 2005, it already became the fourth largest export market of the US. China has become an important market pushing up the overall export trade volume of the US. During the first ten months of this year, US export to China reached nearly 50 billion US dollars, exceeding the total amount of last year and increasing by 24% from the same period last year, the vice minister noted.

GLOBAL INVESTMENT UPDATE: China Career Builder Corp. Announces Completion of Reverse Merger

VANCOUVER, BC — (MARKET WIRE) — December 07, 2006 — Global Developments, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: GBDP), a publicly traded venture capital company, is pleased to provide the following update with respect to China Career Builder Corp., a human resources services company headquartered in Hong Kong, in which Global holds an equity stake.

China Career Builder Corp. (PINKSHEETS: CCBX) announced today that it has completed its reverse merger with Crescott Inc., a publicly traded company incorporated in the state of Delaware, and trading on the over-the-counter Pink Sheets. As a result of the reverse merger, the company changed its name from Crescott Inc. to China Career Builder Corp. and was issued a new trading symbol.

The National Association of Security Dealers (NASD), the regulatory organization responsible for the operation and regulation of the NASDAQ and OTC stock markets, published on November 16, 2006, the name change to China Career Builder Corp. and that it had issued CCBX as its trading symbol.

About China Career Builder Corp.

China Career Builder Corp. is a human resource services company, focused on various industries in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The company provides recruitment services focusing on the professional, management, clerical, administrative, and industrial market in Greater China. Its services include screening, recruiting, training, workforce deployment, loss prevention and safety training, pre-employment testing and assessment, background searches, compensation program design, customized personnel management reports, job profiling, description, application, turnover tracking and analysis, opinion surveys and follow-up analysis, exit interviews and follow-up analysis, and management development skills workshops. The company markets its recruitment services through a combination of direct sales, telemarketing, trade shows, and advertising.

About Global Developments

Global Developments, Inc. is a publicly traded venture capital company. It was formed to create a unique investment vehicle representing a growing portfolio of innovative and emerging growth-oriented companies. Global acquires its portfolio companies either as wholly or partially owned subsidiaries, or as an investment where Global is the lead investor. As a result, Global maintains substantial management and operational control, thereby giving it the ability to provide significant oversight and guidance in building value and creating liquidity events for its shareholders. Global invests in companies with solid management, operational excellence, and the potential to grow substantial revenue streams.

Please visit http://www.globaldevelopmentsinc.com for more information.

Forward-Looking Statements

You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements in this press release. This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Words such as “will,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “plans,” “goal,” “expects,” “future,” “intends,” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements for many reasons, including the risks we face as described in this press release. For further information about Global Developments, Inc. please refer to its Web site at http://www.globaldevelopmentsinc.com.

US initial jobless claims decline from 13-month high

THE number of US workers filing first-time applications for state unemployment benefits fell last week from a 13-month high that was inflated by end-of-year seasonal adjustments, the Labor Department said yesterday.

Initial jobless claims fell by 34,000 to 324,000 in the week that ended on December 2 from 358,000 the prior week, the department said in Washington, according to Bloomberg News. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, rose to 328,750, the highest since May, from 325,250.

Claims from the prior week, which included Thanksgiving Day, were distorted by seasonal adjustments that cause wide fluctuations in weekly figures at this time of year, a department spokesman said. Attention will now turn to today’s report on November payrolls, which may show job growth remained below the average for the year, according to a Bloomberg survey.

“Most of the jump in claims in the prior week was due to a seasonal adjustment problem around the Thanksgiving holiday,” Mike Englund, chief US economist at Action Economics LLC in Boulder, Colorado, said before the report. “Most of that gain was reversed this week. Data suggest some downside risk for payrolls.”

A Bloomberg survey of 40 economists forecast claims would decline to 325,000 from an originally reported 357,000. Economist estimates ranged from 300,000 to 350,000.

The number of people continuing to collect state jobless benefits rose to 2.524 million in the week that ended on November 25, the highest since January, from 2.467 million in the prior week. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the US jobless rate, held at 1.9 percent.

Forty states and territories reported a decrease in new claims, while 12 reported an increase and one had no change, the department said. Those numbers are reported with a one-week lag.

Initial jobless claims, which reflect firings, usually increase with slowing job growth, which is measured by the US government’s monthly report on non-farm payrolls.

Still, as fewer women seek jobs and the population ages, the labor market remains tight. The unemployment rate was 4.4 percent in October, a five-year low, and workers’ average hourly earnings rose 3.9 percent from October 2005, close to September’s five-year high of 4.1 percent.

Some companies continue to hire to boost output or introduce new products.

Electric Boat Corp, a unit of General Dynamics Corp and the primary contractor on the US Navy’s Virginia-class nuclear submarine, plans to hire about 200 engineers this year to work on advanced submarine concepts, said Robert Hamilton, spokesman for the Connecticut-based manufacturer of nuclear submarines .

PepsiAmericas to cut jobs

SOFT drink bottler PepsiAmericas Inc said it plans to reorganize its field sales and delivery network in the United States as part of a realignment estimated to result in charges of US$18 million.

Sara Zawoyski, vice president of investor relations, said most of that money would go toward relocations, and some field operations will be centralized in Schaumburg, Illinois, where the company’s operating headquarters are based. While PepsiAmericas is officially based in Minneapolis, its executive office is small.

PepsiAmericas is the world’s second-biggest producer, seller and distributor of PepsiCo beverages. It has operations in 19 US states, Central Europe and the Caribbean.

While Zawoyski declined to give a head count on the job reductions, she said it would be less than one percent of the company’s US work force, she said which is now around 12,000 to 13,000, and that they would be scattered across the country. Worldwide, PepsiAmericas employs about 16,000 people, she said.

The US$18 million charge will consist of severance and other employee-related costs. About US$12 million of the charge will be recorded during the fourth quarter

China largely silent on telecom strategy

HONG KONG — If the world’s telecommunications executives thought that bringing their industry’s biggest trade show to China would spur Chinese officials into opening their vast market, they were wrong — at least so far.
Government officials have avoided using the ITU Telecom World 2006 conference in Hong Kong this week to say when they would allow next-generation mobile phone networks to enter the country.

With third-generation services slow to take off in Europe and the United States, telecommunications suppliers have been counting on China to provide a major lift, and most say that they are ready to jump in whenever so-called 3G network building begins in earnest on the Chinese mainland. But, so far, the industry has encountered only delays and postponements.

At the opening ceremony for the conference on Sunday and again Monday, Chinese leaders declined to announce a timetable. Three important decisions remain: which technology China will select, which mobile phone operators will get the licenses, and when. “China will consider three standards for 3G,” Wang Xudong, the minister for the information industry, said Monday. “The timing for issuing 3G licenses will be determined by the market.”

With India and China together adding more than 12 million cellphone subscribers a month, the two countries are the fastest-growing markets for conventional networks. These networks are good for voice calls, but too slow to allow subscribers a comfortable experience surfing the “mobile Internet” on a cellphone.

With present-day mobile phone use reaching a saturation point in many industrial economies, telecommunications supply executives can seem almost wistful about the potential for 3G networks in China, a $26 billion market for such systems.

“This is for the government to decide, but there’s no negative,” said Frederic Rose, president of the Asia-Pacific region for the newly merged Alcatel- Lucent.

His boss, Patricia F. Russo, and the chief executives of Ericsson, Motorola and Nortel Networks are among those meeting here with clients, suppliers and Chinese officials. But China has shown a preference for developing and choosing its own standards, and if it does so in this case, some Western companies may be left out.

The European version of 3G is called W-CDMA, a technology with the backing of Nokia and Ericsson; one used by some American carriers is called CDMA 1000x; and China’s is called TD-SCDMA. Technically, they are related, but there is little consensus on differences in quality.

“I expect we will get some clarity by summer,” Mr. Rose said. “We expect there will be 3G networks operational in the main cities for the Olympics in September 2008.”

Alcatel-Lucent gets about a third of its revenue from the Asia-Pacific region. Mr. Rose said the company was buffered in two ways from the impact of a decision about a 3G standard. First, it is actively investing in the second-generation business, which is still growing in China.

Second, Alcatel-Lucent is prepared to jump into any of the three standards.

Its TD-SCDMA equipment, through its Shanghai Bell joint venture with Datang Communications of China, is already being used in pilot networks in the country. And since Datang owns most of the TD-SCDMA intellectual property, Alcatel-Lucent would generally not pay royalty fees to use it. (Datang is also working with Siemens.)

In addition, Alcatel-Lucent makes W-CDMA equipment for the European market. And the merger of Alcatel and Lucent Technologies brought to the combined company Lucent’s expertise in CDMA.

Chinese manufacturers are also ready. ZTE and Huawei are among the biggest pushing for the TD-SCDMA standard, and they, too, make equipment for the competing standards. They would also be eager to see companies like Nokia and Motorola give up their dominance of the second-generation network business in China.

Samsung of South Korea would like a piece of the action, as well. “We are ready to enter that market, whether it is TD-SCDMA or W-CDMA — whatever the standard,” said Jeong Han Kim, senior vice president for Samsung Electronics’ telecommunication network business. “We will be a major player in that area,” he said, citing two factories that Samsung has on the mainland.

Although 3G phone services like videoconferencing, Internet browsing and TV viewing may be more expensive than most Chinese can afford, Mr. Jeong said that “China has very big potential, so it will grow very fast.”

After three years of waiting, the telecommunications industry is still speculating. But there is one thing that companies can bank on, Mr. Rose said.

“There’s no fear that 3G won’t happen in China.”

New Monster Product Aimed at Franchisee Hiring Headaches

New Monster Product Aimed at Franchisee Hiring Headaches
A job-posting process that often hampers hiring for companies with franchises spread across the country could be getting a makeover if Monster gets its way.

Monster is launching its National Account Suite, which seeks to streamline the recruitment process and quell the push and pull that often exists between corporate headquarters and franchisees, says Mike Madden, the company¡¯s senior vice president of product.

The suite makes use of existing technology to the meet the recruitment needs of specific employers, says Peter Weddle, CEO of Weddle¡¯s, a research firm and consultancy in Stamford, Connecticut. Such customization is the wave of the future, he says.

“This product spells the next evolution of online recruitment services,” he says. “Companies will be tailoring technology to better meet the needs of their recruiting clients.”

Essentially, Monster is mimicking something newspapers created over time. As papers evolved, they developed classified advertisement products that cater to specific industries, such as real estate and automobiles, Weddle explains.

Monster, which launched its suite in November, believes there will be significant interest from clients because it is the only product of its kind in the industry, Madden says.

“There are about 2 million franchise businesses in the U.S.,” he says. “It would be great if we could get 30 to 50 percent of that market.”

Monster¡¯s product aims to reduce recruitment gridlock. Though each company differs in its policies, the job-posting process generally is slowed because hiring managers at franchise sites must get approval from corporate headquarters each time they want to post an opening.

Often, headquarters will contend that it¡¯s a necessary step to control recruitment expenses. Local hiring managers have complained that the process is cumbersome, time-consuming and ineffective, particularly in industries where turnover is high, like chain restaurants.

Monster¡¯s new product offers a compromise. Franchisee hiring managers will no longer have to seek approval from corporate headquarters before posting a job. That will enable them to more easily hire the help they need. Corporate headquarters, meanwhile, don¡¯t have to worry about overspending at the franchise level because the price of the subscription has been pre-negotiated.

The subscription, typically lasting a year, gives local hiring managers access to self-service tools that let them control the content and the frequency of job postings. Customizing the ads at the local level is important because hiring managers can use language that resonates with the community in which they are trying to hire, Madden explains. The entry base price is $800 to $1,000 for a year¡¯s subscription, he says.

Local managers will be able to quickly post a job opening, even proactively managing future needs in the workforce pipeline. Posting a job can take 24 to 48 hours, compared with a week or more with the traditional checks and balances.