Category News of China

Asia executive hiring better but still slow -Hudson

By Susan Fenton

HONG KONG, July 9 (Reuters) – Job prospects for executives in Asia have improved in the past three months as employers expect business to pick up later in the year, though they are still cautious about adding headcount, a quarterly survey showed on Thursday.

Hiring expectations in Singapore rose in the past three months for the first time since early 2007 and in Hong Kong increased for the first time since early last year.

Still, only 26 percent of Singapore employers plan to take on staff in the next three months, up from 20 percent last quarter, and in Hong Kong just 22 percent expect to be recruiting, up from 14 percent.

In China, only 27 percent of respondents said they would be hiring, down slightly from 30 percent in the previous quarter. However, recent economic data suggest the world’s third-biggest economy is accelerating and 34 percent of companies in the manufacturing and industrial sector aim to take on staff this quarter, up from 21 percent last quarter.

The survey previously covered Japan but Hudson, part of Chicago-based Chicago-based Hudson Highland Group ( HHGP – news – people ) Inc, said it closed its Japan operation in April and would no longer include the country in its quarterly surveys.

China’s job situation improves

Employment in China’s southeastern regions is rising steadily. Due to the increasing orders, many enterprises are even suffering a shortage of workers.

Employment in China’s southeastern regions is rising steadily. Due
to the increasing orders, many enterprises are even suffering a
shortage of workers.

Figures show the jobless rate in China’s Pearl River Delta region has eased since May. Employee demand for Guangzhou and Dongguan increased 15 percent in May, and 10 percent in June. Shenzhen had its first employee shortage in April, and some job seekers have received more than two company offers.

Cai Huanxing, Inspector of Shenzhen Labor & Social Sec. Bureau said “Most of the job offers come from the machinery and manufacturing sectors. Based on our estimates, Shenzhen is short of 100,000 workers right now.”

Although the demand for employees is rising, many job seekers are still holding a “wait and see? attitude. About 600,000 migrant workers have left China’s industrial heartland, as the world economic crisis hits the region. That’s why companies in the Pearl River Delta region are suffering recruitment difficulties.

Human Resourves Rep. of Shenzhen Company said “We need 300 workers. But we have actually only 3 people. Obviously that number is way below our target.”

Beijing Subway says it needs 20,000 more workers

Beijing Subway announced Monday it would more than double its workforce with an extra 20,000 staff as its operations expand to 561 kilometers by 2015.

The city had eight subway lines, totaling 200 km and hauling 4 million passengers daily, already in service, said the company in a statement on its website.

Beijing Subway has 16,000 people on its payroll, 10 percent of whom have worked on the subway for less than a year.

The company said the municipal government had been increasing investment in building training establishments and teaching skills to deal with the labor shortage.

68% of college graduates land jobs

China is under pressure to find jobs for 6.1 million college students graduating this summer. Efforts from various governments and colleges have had limited success. The Ministry of Education says by July the 1st, 4.15 million, or 68 percent of new graduates have landed job.

China is under pressure to find jobs for 6.1 million college students
graduating this summer.

The number of college students graduating this year increased by 440-thousand, from 5.7 million last year. So far, the employment rate is about the same compared to that of a year ago.

To cope with the pressure of finding jobs for fresh graduates, China has adopted polices to increase employment opportunities.

The Ministry of Education launched a teacher recruitment plan in rural areas, which absorbed 200- thousand graduates. 120-thousand graduates have put their name on the lists to become a soldier in the army, and another 200-thousand graduates have signed contracts with outsourcing enterprises under the program launched by the commerce and education ministries. Meanwhile, 120-thousand graduates will go to rural areas or less-developed western regions to start their career.

Zhang Haoming, Deputy Director of Department of University Students’ Affairs of Ministry of Education said “College graduates who haven’t landed jobs can contact local human resources and social security departments. They can have training, guidance and internships offered by them to find a job as soon as possible.”

The Ministry of Education is vowing to coordinate efforts with other departments concerned to find jobs for 70 percent of graduates by September the 1st.

Chinese firms start new hires amid economic recovery

Chinese employment service providers said domestic firms have started a fresh round of hiring, especially for management level position, as part of the efforts to cash in on the economic recovery, but most of these firms are still finding it hard to get the right candidates.

Three industries — real estate, hi-tech and retailing — are at the forefront of the current round of hiring, according to Wednesday’s China Daily.

Wang Shangfeng, general manager of Gold Elite, a major Chinese job hunter, was quoted as saying the past few months have been the worst ever for the company. Demand (from clients) for new labor shrank sharply since the financial crisis broke out. Some private companies were watching while others, especially international companies, stopped hiring.

The company’s business has improved since early June. Like GoldElite, DoWelljoin Hunter, another employment service provider, also sees clients back for new hires last month. Its business has grown by 40 percent last month compared with the previous months. The growth rate was even higher than a year earlier.

However, companies in China are still finding it difficult to get the right candidates for the wanted positions, said a survey by Manpower.

According to the survey, 15 percent of the employers are struggling to fill up positions. The top three jobs that they are having difficulties to fill up this year are technicians, management or executives and sales representatives.

Baker & McKenzie Plans to Cut 11% of Lawyers in China

Baker & McKenzie LLP, the world’s second-largest law firm by revenue, plans to eliminate 11 percent of its lawyers and professional staff in China because of the “very challenging” economic climate.

“These difficult measures are necessary to ensure our ongoing financial health in an increasingly competitive environment,” the Chicago-based firm said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. A comparable number of secretarial and support staff will be leaving, according to the statement.

Baker didn’t say which practices were affected. The firm has more than 350 lawyers and professional staff in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, according to a separate statement yesterday on the appointment of five partners in the three cities.

International firms including New York-based Proskauer Rose LLP and London-based Ashurst LLP have opened Hong Kong offices in the past 12 months, drawn by a boom in initial share sales by Chinese companies in the city which raised $40 billion a year in 2006 and 2007.

While new share sales collapsed to $7.9 billion last year, bankers and analysts predict a revival this year, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. saying as many as 100 companies may be reviving sales plans postponed during the 2008 equities rout. The accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP has said as much as $39 billion may be raised in Hong Kong and China in 2009.

DLA Piper Cuts

Firms including Chicago-based DLA Piper LLP cut lawyers and staff in Asia in the first half of this year and most of the region’s legal job cuts were thought to be over, according to Jacqueline Keddie, a Singapore-based managing consultant at legal recruitment firm Law Alliance.

“The market isn’t so robust that anyone can guarantee there will be no further retrenchments,” she said.

The dismissals at Baker are at least the firm’s third round of job cuts globally this year.

“The current economic climate is proving very challenging for most businesses, including many of our clients,” Baker said in its statement. “It is difficult to predict the timing and pace of the recovery of the markets in which we operate in Asia.”

Baker & McKenzie said in its statement that its new partners in China are: Joseph Deng, Barbara Li, Eugene Lim, Scott Palmer and Jennifer Van Dale. The firm said in it now has 72 partners at its offices in China and Vietnam.

More effort to boost employment

The Chinese government is sparing no efforts to help college graduates find jobs. Local related departments have been urged to launch campaigns in the next three months to boost employment.

Education departments and universities are required to help graduates whose files are still in the school, to find jobs as soon as possible. Unemployed graduates whose files have been transferred to their hometowns can contact local human resources authorities for internship opportunities. Companies that employ interns and local governments should offer living subsidies to the graduates.

Yu Faming, official of Ministry of Human Resources & Social Security, said, “We will publish a list of internship bases, universities could choose one to cooperate with and send their students there.”

Employment campaigns have already been launched in some places. In Sichuan Province, local authorities have organized a job fair for graduates who want to start a business and graduates from low income families.

Summer online job week to kick off

China will launch a nationwide week-long online job fair starting Saturday. Information will be collected and posted on several websites. They include the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National College Grad Employment Service Platform, and the China Labor Market.

Fewer than half of this year’s college graduates have found jobs, due to the global downturn.

The target employment rate for graduates is 80 percent by the end of August.

China to stabilize employment

China’s newly employed workers dropped again in April after rebounding in the first quarter. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has promised to use the unemployment insurance fund to stabilize the situation.

New employment in urban areas in April dropped more than 10 percent in eastern regions. In Shanghai, the decline reached 45 percent, in Fujian province, 23 percent.

The registered urban unemployment rate hit just over 4 percent, the highest in four years. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security says it will use 30 to 40 billion yuan in the unemployment insurance fund to stabilize employment.

Zuo Chunwen, dept. director of Ministry of HR& Social Security, “we will move forward our frontier of unemployment insurance. It used to be given to people who lost their jobs. We will now use it to keep workers employed.”

China’s unemployment insurance fund reached 131 billion yuan at the end of last year. The system covered 124 million people. The Ministry says it will use the fund to encourage enterprises to retain positions through training, adjusted working hours, and negotiating salaries.

The Ministry says local governments should launch policies to both increase and stabilize jobs. The focus should be on graduates, search services and essential training.

Employment in Shenzhen to recover

The employment situation across China has begun to show signs of recovery thanks to stimulus policies initiated by the central government. Especially those policies aimed at ensuring growth and employment.

New figures show the major economic index in Shenzhen is continuing to climb. They also show that native brand enterprises such as Huawei and Zhongxin Communication have maintained over 20 percent growth between January and April. And the increase in orders has directly stimulated employment demand. The Shenzhen Labor department reported that the job supply and demand ratio in January was 0.74. But in May, that ratio expanded to just over 1.08, slightly easing the situation.

Lai Yuewen, Employment Dept. Shenzhen Labor & Social Security, says, “we believe the warming-up of the human resources market in April and May shows that our economy in the city is getting rid of the stress, gradually brought upon by the global financial crisis.”