Category Working in China

Growth for jobs high on agenda

Top policymarkers will convene today to discuss how to grapple with the challenge of ensuring at least 8 percent economic growth next year while at the same time pushing forward with the nation’s economic restructuring, economists have said.

The annual Central Economic Work Conference, to be held from today to Wednesday in Beijing, will set the tone for next year’s economic policy. The three-day event is expected to shed more light on how the government will use fiscal and monetary measures to bolster employment and domestic demand, while reducing excessive dependence on exports.

“The meeting will detail measures for achieving at least 8 percent growth in 2009, the minimum required to keep the unemployment situation under control,” said Song Hong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Song was one of the two economists who attended a Nov 28 meeting with top Party officials to discuss economic priorities for 2009.

The nation’s economic growth dropped to 9 percent in the third quarter, compared with 11.4 percent for 2007. The global economic slowdown may even drag down China’s growth to 7.5 percent in 2009, the lowest in two decades, the World Bank forecast earlier.

Such growth, considered high for many economies, is however not deemed enough for a nation that needs to churn out 10 million jobs for fresh job seekers each year. Over the past months, a number of factories in the costal export bases have closed down, leading to the layoffs of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers.

The bleak situation has led the government to unveil a host of measures such as a $586-billion stimulus package and hefty cuts in interest rates to jack up domestic demand.

Analysts said the government may elaborate at the conference on how it plans to finance the massive stimulus package, which is critical to make up for declining foreign demand.

Zhang Ping, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said earlier that the package could bolster annual GDP growth by 1 percentage point by 2010. Previous statistics show 1 percentage point in GDP growth could create about 1 million jobs.

“Policymakers may put forward further fiscal and monetary stimulus measures,” Song said. “The $586 billion package may prove insufficient, given the worsening world economy.”

It was reported earlier that policymakers would also discuss raising the threshold of personal income tax from 2,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan a month. The move, combined with tax cuts already announced for local businesses, is expected to boost domestic consumption and corporate investment.

Some analysts also expect the yuan to start to depreciate after the conference, which could benefit the nation’s struggling exporters.

While most analysts are looking at the conference for more pro-growth measures, some say policymakers will also reiterate the message that they have no intention of delaying the transformation of the country’s development pattern.

“The current crisis could be an opportunity to reduce the economy’s excessive reliance on exports,” Zhao Tao, deputy secretary-general of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, wrote in commentary published on Saturday in Outlook Weekly, a publication of the Xinhua News Agency.

According to Zhao, the nation’s polices will be directed at boosting domestic demand, consumption in particular, rather than low-end manufacturing for exports.

And the nation will strive to reduce its dependence on foreign trade, as a share of GDP, from 60 percent last year to 40 percent by 2020 and eventually to less than 25 percent.

The government will also unveil more measures to encourage consumption, which should account for about 75-80 percent of the GDP by 2020, Zhang said.

Final consumption, which includes household and community spending, now makes up about a half of the nation’s economy, compared with an average of 70 percent in developing countries and 80 percent in developed economies. This forces China to rely heavily on foreign demand, which also makes it vulnerable to economic downturns abroad.

“Policymakers should make clear that growth should not come at the expense of a delay of the nation’s economic restructuring,” said Zhang Xiaojing, an economist with the CASS, the country’s top think tank. “Or we risk repeating today’s plight in a few years.”

Food firm hires top students

GUANGZHOU – Sun Xiaogang is more familiar with studying the works of famous Chinese writers such as Lu Xun, but now he is swotting up on how to make the best cuts of pork.

Chen Sheng, chairman of Guangdong Tiandi Food Group, gives postgraduates tips on how to sell pork on Thursday in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. [China Daily]

Sun was one of 35 postgraduates hired by Guangdong Tiandi Food Group who worked in markets throughout the city.

The postgraduate student majoring in Chinese literature at Guangzhou’s Sun Yat-sen University, will graduate from the school in the summer of next year.

“We do not have specific requirements regarding what they learn, but our one requirement is that all applicants are postgraduates,” a manager at the company surnamed Lin told China Daily.

To win the post, Sun sold pork in the market for three days.

The 35 successful applicants signed agreements with the company on Thursday, meaning that they can formally start working as soon as they complete their studies.

After they start work, they still need to sell pork in markets for at least two months, Lin said.

“This is training for all of our new employees,” she said.

After the two months, they will be appointed to managerial posts, earning between 80,000 yuan ($12,000) and 100,000 yuan a year, she said.

“The job market is very tough this year. Among all of the students of the Chinese literature postgraduate department at our school, I am the first one to get a job,” Sun said.

In contrast, most of last year’s batch of postgraduates had no problem finding jobs, he said.

Sun said he did not mind having to work in the market as a pork seller, given the current poor state of the job market. In addition, the firm has offered him a great opportunity, he said.

Li Xiaolu, director of Guangdong education department last month warned students who are going to graduate from college and graduate school next year that the job market they will face will be the toughest in three decades.

He encouraged students not to set their sights too high, adding that working in less-developed areas or setting up their own businesses were two options open to them.

Zhejiang on recruitment drive

While Shanghai tries to lure top overseas professionals, representatives of 247 companies in Zhejiang will be visiting the city to attract some its workers to the province.

Zhejiang is offering more than 5,000 jobs at a fair to be held in Shanghai on Saturday.

The province is seeking managers, administrative directors, executive vice-presidents and vice-presidents.

“There are 50 to 60 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from Wenzhou participating at this job fair, with several hundred positions available,” Zhou Dewen, chairman of the Wenzhou SMEs development promotion federation, said yesterday.

“Wenzhou is keen on attracting professionals from Shanghai,” Zhou said.

He said it is part of an overall plan to attract 600,000 mid- to high-level professionals.

“Although many SMEs have been hit by a drop in overseas orders due to the current financial crisis, it is still of vital importance to recruit and retain good people,” Zhou said.

Zhejiang is offering a number of perks in its recruit drive – granting of residential status, subsidized education for children, and spouse employment. “We are offering a salary package 10 to 15 percent higher than anywhere else in China,” Zhou said.

The Shanghai University of Finance & Economics (SUFE) has urged its students to attend the job fair.

Ruan Shan, a second-year SUFE student majoring in tourism management, said that her schoolmates, mostly finance majors, are suffering greatly from the global financial crisis.

“Even those few corporations that are continuing to recruit, have drastically cut down on numbers,” she said.

Although there is still more than six months to go before graduation, Ruan and her classmates have attended many job interviews, but have received no offers.

Ruan said she will attend the job fair. “I have lowered my expectations. All I want is just a job here, so long as it pays about 3,000 yuan, ($440) after tax,” she said.

Shanghai casts job net for overseas talent

Representatives of 28 financial institutions here will leave tomorrow for the United Kingdom and the United States in a bid to recruit professionals.

Organized by the Shanghai municipal bureau of human resources and social security, the institutions include banks, fund, and asset management companies. About 170 senior positions are being offered.

In the non-financial sector, more than 1,000 positions are being offered, the government said at a regular press briefing yesterday.

The municipal bureau, together with the local financial services office, will set up three recruitment booths in London, Chicago, and New York.

The booths will be open on Saturday, Tuesday and next Saturday.

“The timing is great for us given the fact that some premier foreign financial institutions are facing hardship and redundancy problems because of the global economic downturn,” Chu Minwei, president of Shanghai Finance University, said. The university is also looking to recruit overseas.

It is seeking three people to fill the positions of dean, department of international securities; assistant president, academic affairs; and chief economist, international finance institution.

“We expect the overseas professionals to help extend our global academic network, and introduce more top people to our university,” Chu said.

Jeanne Qian, China country manager for human resources consulting firm, Neumann Partners, said.

“It’s a smart move by Chinese companies to conduct this strategic hiring given the current situation under which foreign firms are laying off staff.

“Overseas professionals have a broader global view and have more international exposure, in particular to risk management, than domestic professionals.”

Ian Crawford, executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai, said the City of London is the largest financial market in the world, and thus has a wide variety of outstanding professionals.

“Overseas professionals work in a much bigger and wider market, and therefore have the opportunity to learn more about the trading and application of sophisticated financial products,” Crawford said.

However, there are stumbling blocks ahead for the talent hunters, the major ones being salaries and the cultural divide.

“The payment gap will still be there, although we will offer attractive salary packages for ideal candidates. We will offer an annual salary of 500,000 yuan ($ 74,000) or above, which is much higher than the average in China,” Chu said.

Crawford said Chinese financial institutions may baulk at the salary and bonus packages being offered to attract top professionals “but there is relatively little attraction for these professionals to come to Shanghai until the Chinese financial markets are significantly opened up”.

Ministry urges better job guidance for graduates

The Ministry of Education has urged education departments across the country to offer better employment guidance and support to college graduates so that they can find proper jobs even in these difficult financial times.

“The grim economic situation poses an unprecedented challenge for college graduates to get a proper job. A series of new steps should be taken to broaden the job-seeking channels,” the ministry said on its website yesterday.

“The education departments should hold more and larger job fairs next year to provide better communication between employers and college graduates,” it said.

More than 6 million students will graduate next year and some of them have already begun seeking jobs.

Graduates who commit to work in remote and rural areas for a given period will be exempt from paying college tuition fees, the ministry said on Monday. And the government will pay off their education loans or grant them free admission to postgraduate courses.

The government will recruit over 30,000 college graduates next year to teach in rural schools in western regions.

The government adopted a plan in 2006 to send college graduates to rural schools as teachers, and will employ 100,000 graduates in villages in five years, starting from 2008.

On the Ministry of Education’s suggestion, the army will absorb more college students next year, and the figure will be nearly equal to the total quota for 2006 and 2007: 16,000 and 17,000.

Other plans to help new graduates include raising the number of seats in full-time postgraduate or second-degree courses, which many Chinese college students could join to postpone their job-hunting exercise and look for better ones with a higher degree a couple of years later.

A colossal number of students graduate from China’s colleges each year and their success rate in finding jobs varies.

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.

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.

Graduates feel pains of global financial crisis

For Jin Zhenghao, this November has been the most stressful month in his 25 years of life.

A financial engineering major at Xiamen University in southeast China’s Fujian Province, Jin is desperately trying to find a job before graduating in June 2009.

November is when the school gave him time to market himself to potential employers. Jin has sent resumes to nearly 30 companies, resulting in five interviews. So far, he has received no job offers.

Now, Jin is paying 2,000 yuan (US$293) a month to live in Shanghai, the country’s financial hub, in hopes of securing more interviews.

“Companies either have few job vacancies or simply don’t want new people,” Jin told Xinhua over the phone. Only a year ago, he added, graduates like him, would end up with job offers from several well-known international or domestic financial companies before graduation.

“The situation is obviously very bad this year. The financial crisis is a major reason,” said Jin. “I’m really worried.”

Many financial companies, particularly international big names, have cut employees this year due to overseas problems in stock markets.

Jin is not the only one to feel the economic shockwave from the developed world. Thousands of factories which used to manufacture shoes, clothes or toys for export, have been closed or are struggling for survival as foreign orders declined.

This not only means there are more unemployed people, but also fewer opportunities for first-time job seekers.

Deputy Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Zhang Xiaojian said here on Thursday that 6.1 million college and university students will graduate in the first half of next year.

An additional four million college students who graduated in previous years have not found jobs and will also be vying for limited opportunities.

“If companies’ demand for new employees drops significantly, finding a job will definitely become more difficult for college students,” Zhang said.

Professor Yue Changjun, an expert on education and economy at Peking University in Beijing, told China Youth Daily that 67,000 private Chinese companies closed in the first half of this year.

According to Yue, this is a significant figure because private companies employed 34.2 percent of college graduates last year.

“How come I can’t find a job?” a Peking University student, anonymously named “Rebecca ycj”, asked in a message posted on the university’s online forum.

The law student said she applied for jobs at several firms, state-owned enterprises, banks and even a news agency, but every time she was refused.

Research from 51job.com, a popular job-seeking website in China, showed the financial service, real estate, foreign trade and manufacturing industries were the hardest hit sectors as a result of the economic slowdown.

The number of job vacancies in financial services, for example, dropped by 12 percent in the July-November period, compared with the same period of last year.

Zhang said the government, schools and students were moving quickly to try to address the difficulties.

A total of 259 job fairs are currently underway throughout China. Nearly 30,000 enterprises, government organs and public institutions will offer more than 500,000 jobs at those fairs before November 30, said Zhang.

“The major idea is to help college graduates obtain employment information, create more job opportunities and encourage students to work in less developed geographical areas where they are welcomed,” he said.

Prof. Li Daokui of Tsinghua University said because not all sectors are affected by the recession overseas, the prospect of employment isn’t as dire as some people feel.

The government announced a 4 trillion yuan stimulus package to boost the economy and domestic demand.

“As long as China’s economy maintains 9 percent growth, 10 million new jobs can be created every year,” Li said.

Meanwhile, students are encouraged to think more creatively when applying for jobs, for example, they need to lower their salary expectations or consider working in rural instead of urban areas.

In a country with more than 1.3 billion people, college education used to be considered a guarantee for good income, a decent work place and a passport to big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Things have changed now.

Jin said financial risk management companies and consulting firms were his first choice for work because entry-level income can be at least 7,000 yuan a month.

“Now 5,000 yuan or even lower is acceptable, as long as I work in the financial field,” he said.

The financial crisis has also made government jobs an unexpected favorite among graduates.

A total of 775,000 people applied for a national examination to qualify as government servants. That’s the highest number since 1994 and 130,000 people more than applied last year, said Yang Shiqiu, Deputy Minister of Human Resources and Social Security.

“Only 13,500 persons will be recruited, meaning less than two in every 100 people will succeed,” he said.

Steps taken to stabilize job market

China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has announced a series of measures to stabilize employment amid the global financial crisis.

In a circular on Monday, the ministry urged local governments to maintain a stable employment market by strengthening the pre-warning and regulation system on unemployment.

Companies have to seek local labor bureaus’ for permission before mass layoffs or stopping recruitment.

The circular encourages State-owned enterprises do their best to minimize the number of layoffs. People who have lost their jobs because of bankrupt enterprises should be given the entire amount of unemployment insurance payment on time.

It calls for development of labor-intensive industries. Local governments should accord priority to developing key enterprises in labor-intensive industries, and improve relevant polices of financial support, credit financing and social service.
The ministry has laid emphasis on efforts to help university graduates, laid-off workers and people in impoverished areas find jobs. Calling for more efforts to implement a pro-active employment policy, it has stressed that laid-off workers of bankrupt enterprises be helped to find jobs.

Local government officials should visit enterprises and communities to register laid-off people, it said.

They should ensure basic living conditions for laid-off people, and provide employment services such as job training and guidance to help them find jobs as soon as possible.

China opens nationwide job fairs for graduates amid global financial crisis

China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security started a weeklong job-hunting service campaign on Sunday to help university graduates get employed amid the global financial crisis.

Nationwide job fairs and online recruitments will offer more than 520,000 job vacancies for the graduates.

Statistics showed that about six million students will graduate from universities and colleges next year and some 800,000 of this year’s graduates are still awaiting job offers.

Si Yilei, director of the ministry’s National Center for Human Resources, said besides the job fairs, the ministry would also provide consultations on job-hunting, give guidance and training to the graduates who choose to start their own business, and establish a database of unemployed graduates.

Vice Minister Zhang Xiaojian said the graduates would face severe challenge in job-hunting due to the global financial crisis.

“It’s significant to the social stability of helping the graduates to get employed,” Zhang said.

More job opportunities in less-developed central and western parts of China will be offered to the graduates, he said.