Archives August 2013

Specialized newsrooms abuzz on WeChat

Social media cater to public demand for concise, customized information

Lu Jiuping starts working at 4 am every day, but the retired 50-year-old businessman has never made a cent from his current occupation.

He starts his day by reading several financial websites, picking out valuable bits of business or IT news.

Not satisfied to digest the information alone, he posts these news items on “Tearoom 90”, an official account he registered on WeChat, a popular mobile social networking platform developed by Chinese IT giant Tencent.

Since it was set up in February, Lu’s free subscriber service has attracted a readership of more than 14,000, quickly turning it from a “tearoom” to a “newsroom”, much to the delight of the amateur media strategist.

“I am working as the chief editor of an e-magazine,” Lu said.

The Official Account is one built-in WeChat function that offers broadcast messaging. Operators of each account can share anything in any format with their subscribers and receive instant feedback.

According to Tencent’s website, the platform was originally created for big brands, such as airlines, banks and celebrities, but it has unexpectedly struck a chord with the public and citizen reporters, like Lu, who are taking advantage of the platform to develop specialized storytelling styles.

In the past few years, Sina Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like service, has exploded in popularity. Millions of Weibo users use the service to speak their mind.

Platforms such as Sina Weibo and WeChat are changing the way media work, with netizens now discovering and discussing social events online.

However, spam and misinformation have grabbed onto the coattails of the service, and people are getting tired of irrelevant or boring micro blogs that pop up on their screens all day.

Lyu Xin, dean of the New Media Department of Animation and Digital Arts School at Communication University of China, described this as the “parabola” of social media development.

He said that the rise of micro-blogging inspired people from all walks of life to voice their opinions on social issues, breaking down traditional media’s long-held domination over the spread of information and speeding up information transmission.

As they become increasingly immersed in social media, however, users find that it gets “boring” to sift through massive amounts of irrelevant information to find news that interests them. Instead, they prefer to spend their time perusing concise and well-organized information delivered to them directly.

“The parabola has reached its peak, and it will go down,” said Lyu, “but people’s demand for social media will go up.”

The professor attributed the popularity of WeChat to the platform’s ability to push content that meets public demand.

“In the social media age, no dish suits all tastes. People need more information to serve their personal interests. The Official Account on WeChat provides a venue for both institutions and individuals to publish their personal information,” one blogger wrote.

Lu’s case helps to illustrate that point.

He describes his “Tearoom 90” as a professional business magazine. “My target customers are industry insiders, and those gossip girls or boys have little interest in following.”

The customized information helps to attract people with shared interests to subscribe, but subscriber-only content, which only subscribers can read or comment on, could be used to broadcast false information.

Many national newspapers, magazines and websites have also landed in the platform.

In April, China Central Television, a State-owned broadcaster, launched its official WeChat account “CCTV News” to spread news reports and photos, as well as receive reader comments.

Government departments have also opened accounts for hearing opinions from the public. According to a report released in May by Tsinghua University, the number of government accounts on WeChat has reached 1,000 across China.

Spending linked to social security

Many people were surprised to find that China’s average individual savings had reached 77,623 yuan ($12,645). But no matter how high or low the figure is, Chinese people are not likely to exchange happiness for consumption, says an article in Beijing Morning Post. Excerpts:

The announcement of the national average individual savings data could be demoralizing for people who don’t have that sort of savings. In fact, many netizens have made fun of the latest savings data by saying that they will try to catch up with the national average by surviving without food and drinks.

The average savings rate may not mean much in times of wide differences in consumption, financing, investment and earnings, especially when depositing money in banks has become the least lucrative means of wealth management.

As a country that tops the global savings rate, China has a huge number of people who are reluctant to spend more and thus boost domestic consumption to help the country’s economic growth. If savings is only about mere accumulation of money in banks, wealth management will not help national economic development.

Chinese people will really feel happy when they have enough in bank deposits even after spending more than usual, which means they should have enough cash in hand or bank to deal with emergencies, such as paying for housing, medical care and their children’s education.

Therefore, only if the government increases its input in social security will Chinese people spend more instead of depositing their money in banks.

Jobless graduates may exceed 3 million

Over 3 million graduates in China are struggling to find jobs this year, according to a report on China’s social security, released on Sunday.

With nearly 7 million graduates this year, and adding on the unemployed students from previous years, the number of graduates struggling to find jobs before leaving school is estimated to have reached over 3 million, said Wang Yujun, from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, at a press conference for the “2012 China Social Security Reform and Development Report”.

The report also said that delayed retirement is not a viable option at present, as the current conditions are insufficient.

The job market is unable to fulfill the demands of job hunters, with 30 percent of new job vacancies coming from the retired, according to Professor Deng Dasong of Wuhan University.

In China, calls are being made to delay the retirement age from 60 to 65, as the aging population continues to grow rapidly.

Plight of Chinese hawkers highlights impact of downturn

Every year the scorching Chinese summer brings throngs of unlicensed vendors out on to the streets, hawking everything from pirated DVDs to watermelons.

Given their lowly and illegal status they are often treated poorly by the authorities, but this year has been particularly bloody for this army of mobile shopkeepers.

Two weeks ago, Deng Zhengjia, a 56-year-old watermelon vendor, was killed and his wife knocked unconscious after they were attacked by the local “chengguan” – an auxiliary police force tasked with keeping city streets clean and orderly.
Since then there have been a dozen similar incidents reported across China in which “melon-peasants” (as they are referred to in Chinese), street hawkers, journalists and even police officers have been beaten up by locally-employed chengguan.

Chengguan brutality is not new, but experts say rising unemployment, particularly in the low-end export-orientated manufacturing sector, is driving up the number of vendors and prompting many more confrontations on the streets.

“The economic downturn has caused an increase in the unemployed and low-income populations and they have to return to the labour market which inevitably increases the conflict between chengguan and street vendors,” says Qiu Jianxin, an expert on the chengguan at Nanjing Aeronautics and Astronautics University.

Official Chinese unemployment data are virtually meaningless as they do not count the country’s hundreds of millions of migrant workers. According to a government manufacturing sector survey published on Thursday, however, employment in the sector has contracted for 13 months. A separate survey published by HSBC showed that the number of workers in the manufacturing sector shrank in July at its fastest pace since March 2009, with expectations of further job cuts.

The government has said 7.25m jobs were created in the first half of the year. But another survey from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security found that the number of new urban jobs fell by 5.7 per cent in the second quarter from the same period a year earlier.

“The employment situation is weakening in China,” says Zhu Haibin, chief China economist for JPMorgan. “The service sector is creating some jobs to hold up the overall labour market conditions but low-skilled manufacturing employment is particularly weak.”

A researcher at a government think-tank, who asked for anonymity, estimated that in some export-orientated manufacturing zones in south China one-third of migrant workers were still employed in factories, another third had switched to employment in the services sector while the final third had returned home to the countryside.

This balancing effect means China has not yet seen widespread net lay-offs despite three years of steadily slowing growth – from almost 12 per cent expansion in early 2010 to 7.5 per cent growth in the second quarter this year.

Without the pressure of massive unemployment the government has been unwilling to launch a major stimulus package to boost the economy as it did in late 2008 in the face of the global financial crisis. But the overall employment figures disguise the shifts that are occurring in the labour market and the potential dangers for China’s stability-obsessed government.

As news of Deng’s death in central China spread on social media, it caused outrage throughout the nation that was even expressed in official media outlets.

Local government officials in charge of the chengguan initially claimed he had “suddenly fallen to the ground and died”. But Beijing soon ordered the arrest of the officers involved and arranged for his family to receive a large payout.

“The government paid off the family quickly to shut them up because they are very worried this incident could spark wider protest or some sort of popular movement,” says Yang Jisheng, deputy editor at the reformist magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu.

Apart from there being fewer available jobs in the manufacturing sector there is also a mismatch between the jobs available and the skills and ambitions of those entering the workforce.

“There are studies that show a connection between unemployment and the number of street vendors in China,” says Ye Tan, a popular columnist who has written extensively about the chengguan. “But for many vendors the problem is not that they can’t find a job, but that they are unwilling to work long hours in high-risk manufacturing jobs.”

Because street vending is the main source of income for many of these migrants, the stakes are high when they are caught by chengguan, who regularly confiscate all of their wares and income. The chengguan often ask for protection money from vendors and regularly conduct street raids that can sometimes turn violent.

Just one day after Deng was killed, another melon vendor in northeast China was beaten up by chengguan in his city, in an incident that was captured on camera phones by witnesses. The footage was replayed by a regional state-controlled TV station whose journalists were themselves attacked by chengguan on camera when they went to the chengguan’s offices to check the facts of the case.

A week later, a police officer was reportedly beaten and had his pistol grabbed by a group of chengguan in western China after he was called to an incident in which the chengguan were attacking people.

China’s high employment levels: adapting their workforce to a fast-changing market

China’s quickly evolving job market is booming and the results of Antal’s 2013 Q2 employment survey on various companies reflect an intent on increasing work efficiency and discovering fresh talent.

In the latest ‘Global Snapshot’ survey, 10,000 organisations in Europe, Africa, India, China and the USA were asked whether they were currently hiring or firing at professional and managerial level.

The survey then went on to identify if businesses planned to do so in the coming quarter.

The results for China were very positive, with a massive 75 per cent of Chinese employers recruiting or replacing staff at senior levels this quarter and 74 per cent planning to hire next quarter, in stark contrast to only 54 per cent expecting to hire in the Q1 edition of the survey.

This demonstrates a significant increase in hiring confidence for replacement and growth positions, as employers clearly defined their intentions and goals for the year.

However, with such an active recruitment market, there was also an increase in the number of companies firing employees.

Consistently high recruitment growth combined with increased labour costs has made employee performance as important as ever, and subsequently replacement recruitment is increasing.

During this quarter, the number of businesses firing staff rose from 14 per cent to 26 per cent, and the numbers are expected to continue increasing over the next three months.

On average, they remain 5 per cent higher than that of APAC. However, this should only be considered in tandem with similarly high hiring levels.

According to James Darlington, head of Asia at Antal International, “there is an increase in cautiousness among job seekers and employers which, together with a changing economy and the necessity for more adapted profiles, explains high recruitment and lay-off rates.”

In a globally stabilised job market, employers prefer higher quality talent, rather than higher quantities.

Furthermore, in many multinational corporations (MNCs), the repatriation of foreigners holding management positions is a significant phenomenon, and many businesses have not found local replacements yet, meaning employee quality is of the utmost importance.

Notably, some industries are booming, while others are lagging behind. The nationwide salary increase over the last two years has led to higher disposable incomes, with the performance of consumer-led sectors having benefited the most.

According to the survey, this quarter’s hiring champions were as follows: the automotive industry (92 per cent), retail & luxury goods (91 per cent), and health care (88 per cent).

Interestingly, the health care industry plans to fire 27 per cent of its employees this quarter, followed by the automotive industry (20 per cent) and luxury goods (8 per cent).

Clearly, specialists in these fields are highly sought after in the country. Demand in these areas is expected to remain high, with sales and marketing, IT and accounting, and R&D being the most demanded positions.

The automotive and aerospace industry “needs specific technical profiles who are bilingual in English” as well as “[a] high level [of] experienced sales talent, professionals with innovative views of the market and marketing experts with challenging and international vision”.

In the luxury good industry, “employers attach great importance to English skills compared to other professional skills” as many youth brands are booming in Beijing and Shanghai.

Due to a growing economy and “more products [are] produced to satisfy people’s daily lives”, the health care industry is “hiring more staff to support business expansion and the influx of foreign companies [into] China.”

As disposable income continues to rise, it is natural for auto and retail industries to continue performing strongly.

This, combined with persistent stagnancy in European markets, means that the major players in these industries will continue focusing their attention on China, thus leading to potentially increased hiring.

The survey reflects accurately what we see and hear from our clients on a daily basis. The talent war in China is continuing to heat up, with many companies prepared to break budgets or head count freezes to hire top level talent.

However, as the market gains in maturity, both employers and candidates are expected to put more emphasis on training and development rather than salary when negotiating a package.

As the world’s second largest economy and a quickly developing labour market, China is now hiring fewer, but “better” people, with HR managers having a clearer vision of their demands for this year and higher expectations on the talents that will drive their business into this challenging but formidable market.

HR company highlights top employers

More than 150 government officials and representatives of the business community gathered in Beijing on Friday for the 11th ChinaHR Best Employers Award Ceremony.

The event was organized by ChinaHR.com, a leading Chinese recruitment website, with the aim of highlighting the 50 most popular employers in China, based on a recent survey conducted by the company.

According to the survey results, the five most popular employers are China Mobile Communication Company Ltd, Bank of China Ltd, Baidu Inc, Lenovo Group Ltd and Microsoft China Co Ltd.

The survey polled more than 100,000 employees and university students looking for work, and asked people to identify their preferred employer, industry and location, and whether they preferred private or public sector employers. Specific rankings in 16 industries, including hotels and restaurants, construction, education and culture, were also given.

The list of 50 most popular companies reflected preferences for jobs in finance, the Internet, real estate, communications, and energy and chemical resources.

About 30 percent of the companies on the list are in finance and the Internet. The financial sector is seen as being well paid, while Web-based companies are seen as developing steadily and providing a good service to customers.

In a break with previous years, 30 percent of the top 50 employers are State-owned enterprises. More than half of the surveyed university students would prefer to work in government departments, institutions and State-owned enterprises because these jobs are considered more stable.

Among university students hunting for a job, 15 percent are aiming to work in Beijing, with 5.1 percent preferring Shanghai and 1.7 percent targeting Guangzhou. The percentage of university students willing to work in the three cities is less than in 2012, but Beijing is still the most appealing of all locations.

“The survey is a perfect platform for job-seekers and employers to find excellent employers and to present the strength and culture of the enterprises. Therefore, there will be perfect matches between the two parties,” says Ciaran Lally, CEO of ChinaHR.com.

“It’s incredible how China’s economy had continued to grow in the past few years. Online recruitment in China is promising, so we see huge opportunities in China,” says Leslie Buckley, chairman of Dublin-based Saongroup, which acquired ChinaHR.com in February.

Lally points out that micro blogs are a very useful tool in recruitment because job seekers and employers can exchange information in a meaningful way.

“Online is becoming more and more dominant as a way to search for and find a job in the world. In recent years, as there are so many jobs online, we moved from the phase of searching for a job to trying to find the right job. ChinaHR allows the companies to use our technology to make the right decision,” Lally says.

Employment outlook weak

Job supply falls as gdp growth slows, say experts

Chinese employers’ hiring intentions will weaken in the second half of 2013 but the employment rate is not a problem yet in China, human resources agencies say.

“China’s net employment outlook slipped to its weakest level since the first quarter of 2010 after employer hiring plans fell in all industry sectors and all regions,” Manpower Group, a global workforce provider, says in its employment outlook survey for the third quarter of 2013.

The firm uses its net employment outlook to describe employers’ hiring intentions.

The Chinese mainland’s net employment outlook is 12 percent in the third quarter of 2013, declining by 5 percentage points compared with the same period of 2012, Manpower says in its report.

Statistics from the survey show that 14 percent of the employers expect to increase payrolls in the third quarter, 2 percent anticipate a decrease and 45 percent forecast no change.

Zhaopin.com, one of China’s largest providers of human resource services, says recruitment growth in the first half of 2013 was 20 percent, falling by 6 percentage points compared with 2012.

The job supply is related to the country’s gross domestic product growth, so as China’s GDP growth slows down, so does employment, experts says.

Some institutions have different opinions on China’s GDP growth in the second half of the year. Nomura Securities, the most pessimistic, forecast a 30 percent possibility that China’s GDP growth will fall below 7 percent in the second half of the year.

However, China’s employment market is still steady because the workforce supply is declining alongside falling demand.

“China’s employment market will be steady in the short term because China’s working-age population is also reducing,” says Du Yang, a professor with the institute of population and labor economics at China Academy of Social Sciences.

Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show the working-age population in the mainland fell by 3.45 million in 2012 compared with the end of 2011.

There is a risk that if economic growth keeps slowing down, the human resource costs will rise and then the labor-intensive enterprises will be under heavy pressure running their businesses, Du says, adding it will lead to job cuts.

Economic transition is a fundamental solution to making sure new technology-intensive and capital-intensive enterprises will offer job opportunities after labor-intensive businesses are eliminated.

This year’s graduate employment is a result of unrealized economic transition, Du says.

College graduates with higher technology skills can meet the demand to improve productivity but there are not enough jobs for them because labor-intensive enterprises still account for the main part of the economy, he says.

On the other hand, the employment in different industries reveals contrasting situations.

“The real economy reflects obviously whether the economic development is healthy, which means secondary industry is affected most by macroeconomic growth,” says Hao Jian, chief consultant at Zhaopin.com.

Manpower’s report also shows that hiring intentions will weaken in the finance, insurance and real estate sectors with a 20 percentage point decline year-on-year in the third quarter of 2013. Mining and construction sectors will suffer an 11 percentage point year-on-year fall.

“Much of the (employment) weakness stems from considerable declines in China’s finance and construction sectors,” Manpower says in its report.

Recruitment in the telecommunication, consulting and information technology sectors will increase slowly this year compared with 2012, Hao says.

Tertiary industry will contribute more to the employment market. Urbanization is good news for job opportunities in tertiary industries.

Job growth in healthcare, retailing and luxury goods sectors will keep going up, Hao says, although these are not main sectors in the employment market traditionally.

Some human resources management companies have moved their businesses to the rising industries.

“Antal has conducted business in the consumer goods and service-related sector since two years ago,” says James Darlington, head of Asia at Antal International, a United Kingdom recruitment and training consultancy.

He says it is easier for the consumer-related industries to cover the rising cost of human resources in China.

Employment in the third quarter will remain very strong in the sectors, Darlington says. July could be the firm’s best month this year in terms of recruitment numbers.

The fourth quarter may have some seasonal slowdown but the majority of its clients in consumer-related industries are still very optimistic about the job market, he adds.

Top foreign brands in China revealed

BEIJING: Major global companies are increasingly heading to China in a bid to boost sales among the nation’s burgeoning middle class, with growth remaining sluggish in Europe and North America.

Market research company Millward Brown identified the top 20 foreign brands in China for a BBC report, and the UK broadcaster has analysed why they have been success stories.

Millward Brown found that 13 of the top 20 brands are from the US, two each from Germany and France, one from Italy, one was the Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever, while the South Korean electronics firm Samsung was the only Asian brand to make the list.

KFC, the US food group, topped the list, followed by Procter & Gamble’s Pampers babywear brand and Colgate Palmolive’s Colgate toothpaste, while Apple was the leading technology brand at No6.

Unilever’s Omo laundry product and French retailer Carrefour were the only non-US entrants in the top ten, at eight and 10 respectively.

Millward Brown’s study found that opportunities for foreign companies are rising rapidly in China, as consumers move away from purchasing by price and trust in Chinese brands rapidly falls away.

For McDonalds, the US drinks giant, the key to Chinese success is to “work with changing social attitudes and continuous aspirational trade-ups,” while Unilever carried out extensive consumer research before entering the market with Omo.

The opportunities for successful companies are immense, with KFC planning to add another 700 outlets to its estate of 4,400 restaurants in 850 cities this year, while McDonald’s is opening 10 new restaurants a week and Coca-Cola is to invest $4bn to expand, the BBC reported.

Outside the food and drink market Apple is to double its outlets in China, while Volkswagen, the German carmaker has seven new production plants in preparation to cater for its biggest market, with China representing a third of all its sales.

Understanding micro-markets is also important, and L’Oreal and Samsung told the BBC that they tailor their approach to different regions of China.

All the companies said that the key to their success is to recruit local talent and engage in joint ventures with local parties to better understand the consumer.