Category Candidates & Labor market

Hiring picture rosy in China

The hiring rate for professional or managerial level positions in China is second highest in the world behind Thailand, according to a report from a leading British staffing firm.

Of the 3,000 Chinese firms polled in October, 81 percent said they planned new hiring in the third quarter, up from 72 percent last quarter.

The November report, from London-based Antal International Ltd, revealed most new positions in China will be in banking, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and professional service sectors.

The company’s October survey polled some 3,000 companies in China and over 9,000 worldwide, Li Zhe, a public relation’s official with the company, said Tuesday.

China hiring is up on the nation’s strong economic growth.

“The Chinese government has done a good job helping China rebound from the economic crisis, which has brought a real recovery for the Chinese economy,” said James Darlington, the company’s Asia chief.

China’s huge domestic market is the driving force behind all the new hiring and also helps explain why many international companies, for example in the pharmaceutical sector, are now expanding their production bases and constructing research and development facilities in China, Antal’s Darlington said.

The Asia-Pacific region, where 77 percent of organizations polled are hiring at the professional or managerial level, has been the most active hiring region in the world, according to the research.

Brazil has also reported hiring demand is up, with 70 percent of those polled planning to bring on new staff in the third quarter.

Globally, the sectors with the highest levels of recruitment are in healthcare, renewable energy, biotechnology, retail and professional services.

On a different note, the report also showed which industries are shedding employees, and in China the banking industry is axing the largest number of staff.

According to Antal International Ltd’s Darlington, this is a positive sign for the industry as the upgrading of talent demonstrates the dynamics of the sector.

While the world financial crisis is still not over, Darlington concluded that a slow but steady recovery has been demonstrated in the professional and managerial jobs market since 2009 — especially in China.

Concern over China’s ‘job-hoppers’

Fund managers in China are switching jobs too frequently. That has led to concerns about the asset management companies’ ability to retain key portfolio personnel and ultimately deliver performance.

Around 148 fund managers have switched or quit their jobs so far this year compared with 85 people in the same period last year, according to Wind Info, a Shanghai-based financial data provider.

Wind Info says only three fund managers in China have more than 10 years of experience in the same company.

“In the US, the average working life for a fund manager is 4.8 to 4.9 years. In China, it is only 1.68 years,” says Vivian Lee, a fund researcher of Galaxy Securities in Beijing.

More and more fund managers are moving from public to private funds. One recent example is Mo Tai Shan. Last week, the ex-general manager of the Bank of Communications Schroder Fund Management moved to Chongyang Investment Management, the largest private hedge fund in China.

Public funds in China target retail investors in the same way that mutual funds do elsewhere. Private funds, meanwhile, target wealthy or institutional investors with a higher investment and risk threshold.

Fund managers are in short supply, so it is common for one manager to run more than one fund. For instance, Lu Zhigang, the former fund manager of Yin Hua Fund Management, controlled three fund products before he left the company this month.

“Here is the regular pattern: fund companies first post recruitment announcements, then the fund managers’ leaving announcements are likely to follow,” says a source from the marketing department of a fund house in Shanghai.

There are several reasons for the high turnover of fund managers in China.

First, the unsophisticated assessment system and poor incentive structure of public funds has made it challenging to retain managers. Many fund houses use the ranking of funds as a big indicator to judge a manager’s performance. However, this is not in line with the concept of “value investment” they put forward. Some fund companies even attempt to draw investors’ attention to new managers in the hope this will increase sales.

“Everything is based on the fund rankings here,” says a source from a fund house in Shanghai. “Investors select funds by their rankings and fund houses judge your [fund manager] performance also by the rankings. We do need a benchmark for comparing the performance of different funds, not just merely relying on the rate of return.”

Second, public fund managers have less investment flexibility, being subject to restrictions such as position limits and on asset allocation. “Fund managers want to be free from these restrictions,” says Jonathan Ha, director for advisory service at Shanghai-based consulting firm Z-Ben Advisors. He adds that good incentives and compensation from private fund houses are attractive to fund managers.

Third, poor portfolio performance forces fund managers to resign. According to Wind Info, by the end of May this year, the average growth rate of the 350 equities funds that it tracks in China was -12.72 per cent, with 54 funds down more than 20 per cent and only 12 funds turning in a profit.

To solve the problem of this high turnover, more and more fund companies tend to apply a “two fund manager” system, which means having one “old” or existing manager plus a new manager. This is also what The China Securities Regulatory Commission expects funds to do, according to analysts.

Wen Qun, an analyst at TX Investment Consulting in Beijing, says the problem will not be solved in the short term. “The fund industry in China has been developing quickly in recent years. It is inevitable the fund houses will face staff shortages,” says Mr Wen.

By Glori Ye

China Imports Pharmaceutical Professionals

By Connie Johnson Hambley

Bingbing Feng and Chip Carnathan have a lot in common. Both men are pharmaceutical professionals with doctorates from U.S. universities, multiple years of experience with American biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and families in the U.S. Each thinks his best career move would be to work in China next.

The pharmaceutical and drug-development business is changing globally, with unavoidable effects on the lives of professionals. The past three years have seen big pharmaceutical companies laying off tens of thousands of highly educated, trained scientists and the U.S. is not creating jobs fast enough to absorb the talent. In tandem with this decline has been an intense push by China to create companies and jobs in the life science sector. As more work is outsourced to China, less is performed in the U.S. Being jobless in the U.S. for a year or more is not uncommon, so China is poised to be the largest beneficiary of a global talent shift.

In 2007 the report “Globalization of Innovation: Pharmaceuticals,” co-authored by Vivek Wadhwa, a senior research associate at Harvard Law School, noted that 5 of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies were based in the U.S., although the country’s standing was threatened. “Cost pressures, the need to tap global talent, and growth opportunities in emerging markets have prompted Western pharmaceutical companies to shift substantial manufacturing and clinical-trial work to India and China,” the report stated. “Increasingly these companies are turning to Asia to broaden the range of new drug candidates.”

The intellectual processes of innovation and creativity, often called scientific rigor, hold the key to pharmaceutical success. After scientists present research to peers and superiors, a dynamic dialogue questions and critiques the work, requiring the scientists to push back with rebuttals. Such vigorous sessions are the hallmark of Western research and development culture. Scientists trained to “push back” are in demand — just not so much in the U.S. According to the National Science Board’s Science and Engineering Indicators, U.S. institutions granted 41,000 science and engineering PhDs in 2007, a third of them to foreign students. The SEI report notes that “recent growth in R&D expenditures has been most dramatic in China, averaging just above 19 percent annually in inflation-adjusted dollars over the past decade,” compared with just a 3.3 percent increase in the U.S.

People who were born abroad, obtain educational and work experience in the U.S., and then go back to their homelands are referred to as “returnees.” “Availability of talent and human capital continues to be a significant concern” to expanding companies, stated the globalization report. While Indian and Chinese returnees are “available today in greater numbers than in years past, many [local] pharmaceutical employees have limited experience with drug-discovery culture.”

“In China it’s harder for people to express themselves voluntarily. They are trained from elementary school to compete for No. 1 so that no one can beat you,” says Mei-Shu Shih, a returnee who serves as chief scientific officer of PharmaLegacy Laboratories, a contract research organization based in Shanghai. “In the United States the mentality in the corporations is to push for scientists to be team players.” Shih says that once team spirit is cultivated in a group of native Chinese scientists, they open up and become “quite brilliant.” Still, he notes, a cultural reticence to speak up can be difficult to overcome.
The push for Western-trained scientists has begun. Cliff Hegan, managing director of Fitco-Consulting, an executive recruiting firm based in Shanghai and Singapore, says that “Western research-and-discovery technology is more scientifically advanced. Chinese-trained scientists are more application-centered and therefore less technically advanced and innovative in their thinking.” Pharmaceutical companies want U.S. trained managers because of their entrepreneurial spirit and creative problem solving skills, in contrast to the more linear, pragmatic, approach of their Asian counterparts. The cultural divide is creating opportunities.

Language is typically not a barrier for a Western scientist seeking to enter the Chinese job market, especially at senior levels. Companies are often willing to provide Mandarin tutors to ease the transition. And because most senior and middle managers in China received essential scientific training in the U.S., they tend to speak English, with young PhDs surprisingly fluent. “Most scientists are surprised when they walk into a lab in Beijing and sit down and interact with a team. Often they see former colleagues and it feels quite like a biotech in Cambridge,” where easily 25 percent of the scientists are Chinese, says John Oyler, a serial entrepreneur and graduate of MIT and Stanford who is starting a cancer research company in Beijing. “It is early here and there is still room for many more talented, Western-trained, research-and-discovery professionals in Beijing.”

Oyler moved to Beijing in 2005 to start BioDuro, a contract research organization that was sold to Pharmaceutical Product Development, a leading global research contractor focused on drug discovery, development, and life-cycle-management services in 2009. “Most people thought I was crazy to move to China. But the move was obvious,” he said. “There are top academic institutions here — unequalled by any city other than Boston — talented and hardworking professionals with great minds, and deep financial support from the Beijing government.” Oyler says it was easy to create a vibrant life because of the energy and close-knit nature of the industry in China.

Some companies prefer candidates fluent in both languages and familiar with both cultures. Bingbing Feng exemplifies this point. “A returnee brings knowledge and experience that a local Chinese does not,” he says. Born and raised in Beijing, Feng moved to the U.S. at 22 to continue his scientific education. He received his doctorate from Purdue in 1997 and then worked in Pennsylvania for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). “The expectations are much higher for a returnee,” he said. “We are expected to bring more to our job and deliver more than a local Chinese.” Open to working in the U.S. or China, Feng says China offers “more opportunities as it’s building up the industry.”

Dr. Jisong Cui, director at Merck Research Laboratories and president of the Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Assn., admits that heritage is coaxing some of her friends back to Asia. Most return, she says, because they consider the career options to be better in China. Since her organization was created in 1993, in part to promote scientific exchange between the U.S. and China, SAPA has grown to more than 4,000 members. Cui estimates that 1,000 U.S.-based members have already returned to China. Indeed, Merck is moving its external research and clinical services work to China to take advantage of current trends.

Carnathan, who has worked in drug development and global regulatory affairs, says he would tell his sons to “jump at the chance to work in China” and would himself follow that advice if he were to receive an offer there. “China is the next wave of business innovation and growth and to be there at the beginning of the upswing is even better,” Carnathan says.

Expatriates Working in China with Criminal Records

By Chris Devonshire-Ellis and Richard Hoffmann

Aug. 27 – A recurring theme over the past two years for expatriates wanting to be based in China is the subject of possessing a criminal record. These may of course be for relatively minor offenses; however China’s policy in this regard can be strict.

A standard requirement (although it is not always requested) for expatriates looking to work in China is for a “Certificate of No Criminal Record” to be provided when applying for a work permit. This is a particularly strict requirement in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, though less so in Beijing and Tianjin. Providing this certificate means having to go to your local police station in your home country and obtaining one. Different countries have different systems for providing such a document, and some smaller countries can even issue this from their embassy in Beijing. For most expatriates seeking employment in China, however, this needs to be obtained from their local police authority in their home country.

The same also applies to having a criminal record in China. However, criminal records are not usually recorded in China on a national basis. Therefore, it may be possible if in possession of a criminal record in China – if the authorities have not already deported you – to apply successfully for such a work permit in a different region of China. The best advice is of course to not commit criminal acts in China. You risk your job, simple as that.

A little known aspect of China’s laws also criminalizes debts of over RMB10,000. That means that if a foreign invested company has become insolvent or bankrupt, unless the debts, including all staff obligations, taxes due and so on are met by the parent company, expatriates simply walking away from the situation risk being found guilty in absentia. This is of particular pertinence to the chief representative or legally responsible person. In these positions, the title means exactly what it says – responsible for the activities of the company, including its debts.

People can be incarcerated for long periods over debts incurred by their company in China. Returning to China knowing that you have such a background then is unwise. Expatriates’ personal data is now shared on a national basis, and even if one manages to apply for a work permit in a different city, a sharp-eyed clerk somewhere may mean a knock on the door sometime later.

The lesson for all expatriates in China is to pay your debts, and keep out of trouble. You may not get a second chance.

Foreign-invested companies in China facing significant problems in which closure becomes necessary must take the appropriate actions when doing so. Leaving China with unauthorized debt places you at significant future risk should you wish to later re-enter the China market. It is far better to negotiate with creditors than face prosecution. Most of the obligations under such circumstances can be dealt with through negotiation, and require the provision for creditors meetings. Although unpleasant, these do allow for the company to state its position firmly, abide by the rules, and decrease the amount of outstanding debt. While creditors can usually be dealt with, staff and any outstanding tax matters do need to be settled. The procedure for closure also requires an audit.

We have recently provided update advice and the procedural structure on this subject, please see the China Briefing issue “Closing Representative Offices and Liquidating Businesses in China” for more information.

Chris Devonshire-Ellis is the principal of Dezan Shira & Associates. Richard Hoffmann is a senior legal associate with the firm and is responsible for issues relating to expatriate employment and human resource legal and administrative matters in China. If you have queries about obtaining work permits in China, please contact Richard at legal@dezshira.com. Businesses requiring advice on liquidation procedures and related matters may contact Sabrina Zhang, national tax partner for the firm, in strict confidence at tax@dezshira.com.

China Bans Foreign Firms Hiring Labors in China to Work Abroad

By Bloomberg News

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) — China will crack down on foreign companies directly recruiting and hiring workers in China to do manual labor overseas, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a joint statement posted to the commerce ministry’s website today.

The government will also stop Chinese companies from sending labors from the nation to work overseas for foreign individuals, according to the statement. China will also strictly control the sending of Chinese labors to work in overseas nations where conditioners are worse than those domestically and where risks are high, according to the statement.

Majority of Taiwan’s new graduates would like to work in China: poll

Nearly 73 percent of Taiwan’s young men and women who graduated from universities or colleges this summer would not mind crossing the Taiwan Strait to work in China, the 1111 job bank quoted the results of a recent poll as indicating Tuesday.

Graduates who majored in business management, finance and economics topped the list of China-bound aspirants, the poll found.

Shanghai is the top choice in terms of location, with 73.08 percent of the new graduates who responded to the poll saying they would prefer to work there, followed by Hong Kong (46.15 percent) , Beijing (42.79 percent) , Guangzhou (21.15 percent) and Suzhou-Hangzhou (20.19 percent), according to the poll.

Work in the information technology sector is the most coveted job of the respondents, followed by trade and goods and services distribution (30.29 percent) , and industrial and business services (23.08 percent), the results show.

Some 63.46 percent of the respondents cited China “promising to become the world’s leading market” as the major reason for their willingness to work there, while 62.5 percent said they want to work in China to expand their experience and 44.23 percent said working in China would help broaden their global perspective, according to the poll.

A total of 80.29 percent of the first-time job seekers who do not mind working in China said they expect a higher salary working in China than they could earn in Taiwan, at roughly NT$43,600 (US$1,364) per month, according to the poll.

The 1111 job bank conducted the survey between June 22 and July 5. It received 1,174 valid samples and had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.86 percentage points. (By Opal Cheng and Deborah Kuo) ENDITEM/J

Cheap Labor Fighting Back in China

As the global race to the bottom for private industry labor continues, it seems the younger Chinese laborer – many of which are exposed to the rest of the world via the internets (sic) – is beginning to have enough. While not a new issue [Feb 28, 2008: China Raising Minimum Wage] the very high profile suicide cases at mega contract manufacturer Foxconn along with strikes at Honda plants in China are bringing this issue to the forefront of public conscience. Even Apple’s Steve Jobs is concerned:

* Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs finds “troubling” a string of worker deaths at Foxconn, the contract manufacturer that assembles the company’s iPhones and iPads, but said its factory in China “is not a sweatshop.” “It’s a difficult situation,” Jobs, dressed in his customary black turtleneck and jeans, said on stage. “We’re trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution.”
* “The situation at Hon Hai is negative for Apple, so they need to work together to try to resolve this,” said Jenny Laia technology analyst at CLSA Ltd. in Taipei. About 70%of Apple’s products may be manufactured at Hon Hai’s facilities, she said.

Not everyone agrees with Mr. Jobs, who is obviously biased:

* Foxconn is a sweatshop that “tramples” the rights of workers partly because it pays about 900 yuan ($131) a month, forcing factory employees to do overtime to support themselves and their families, according to Li Qiang, founder and executive director of New York-based China China Labor Watch.

While this is a positive for “humanity” you can almost hear the siren call of other countries, such as Vietnam, [Apr 7, 2010: Vietnam Begins to Lure Business Away from China] beckoning for the world’s corporations to exploit their workers if the Chinese won’t have it.

* “We have been seeing wage inflation over the past several months,’’ said Chris Ruffle, who helps manage $19 billion as China co-chairman of Martin Currie Ltd. Rising salaries may prompt businesses that operate plants in China to move to lower-cost countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia, Ruffle said.

One can only wonder what nation’s workers will be left to exploit circa 2025 when the Vietnamese and Cambodian worker inevitably rises up as the Chinese are doing. If only Africa had government stability! Perhaps North Korea will be willing to open its doors.

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Via AP:

* Global manufacturers struggling with life-or-death pressures to control costs are finding that the legions of low-wage Chinese workers they rely on have limits. A strike at Honda Motor Co. and the official response to a spate of suicides at Foxconn Technology, a maker of electronics for industry giants such as Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, suggests China’s leaders are at least tacitly allowing workers to talk back.
* Over the weekend, the top communist party leader in Guangdong province visited Foxconn’s sprawling factory where 10 workers have committed suicide and urged the company to adopt a “better, more humane working environment” for its mostly young workers, state media reported.
* “The 80s and 90s generation workers need more care and respect and need to be motivated to work with enthusiasm,” said Guangdong party chief Wang Yang. (my assumption is he meant those workers born in the 80s and 90s)
* That transition is taking hold across China. Manufacturers, under pressure to deliver low prices in home markets, are struggling to attract and keep young workers who, brought up in an era of relative affluence, are proving less willing than earlier generations to “eat bitterness” by putting up with miserable working environments and poor wages.

* The strike at Honda also reflects broader trends of growing dissatisfaction among China’s long-suffering workers with lagging wages and generally harsh working conditions. Employers in Shanghai complain of difficulties in finding and keeping young workers, both skilled and unskilled. Contractors were obliged to pay heavy bonuses to keep workers on the job during the lunar new year as they rushed to finish construction for the Shanghai World Expo, which runs for six months until Oct. 31.
* “Our economy can no longer rely on squeezing labor benefits, because workers are unwilling to accept it anymore. I have to say the squeeze is very cruel now,” said Chang Kai, a labor expert at Beijing’s Renmin University.
* Foxconn says it is installing safety nets on buildings and hiring more counselors at its 300,000-worker factory in Shenzhen, the boomtown bordering Hong Kong in Guangdong province that became the epicenter of China’s first waves of cheap-labor export manufacturing in the 1980s-90s.
* The factory campus has air conditioned production lines, palm-tree lined streets, fast-food restaurants and recreation facilities. But labor activists accuse the company of demeaning and dehumanizing workers with a militaristic management style, excessively fast assembly lines and overwork that have overwhelmed some laborers in their late teens and early 20s and away from home perhaps for the first time.
* (in the Honda plant) “Most of the employees on strike at the plant have agreed to new wages, and some production started there from today,” said Honda spokeswoman Yasuko Matsuura in Tokyo. She said “almost all” of the striking workers have agreed to increasing the total starting wage by about 24% to 1,910 yuan ($280) per month.
* China outlaws unauthorized labor organizing, limiting such activities to the government-affiliated All China Federation of Trade Unions and to company branches of the ruling Communist Party. But in recent years authorities increasingly appear to be tolerating sporadic, peaceful protests by aggrieved workers.
* “Wages have been rising in recent years, but compared with soaring prices they remain very low,” said Li Qiang, founder of New York-based China Labor Watch. “The government recognizes that problem, so even if strikes are still illegal some are tacitly condoned, though the strikes and protests have to stay within certain limits,” he said.
* Working conditions vary widely across China — from modern factories in full compliance with Western standards to slave labor brick kilns. Yet another of those was reported after 34 migrant workers were freed by a police raid in northern Hebei province, the state-run newspaper China Daily said Monday.

and….

* “The Foxconn incident shows one big problem: people are not machines,” Jin Bei, head of the industrial research institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in a commentary Monday in the China Business Journal.

Ah, if only they were! The need for sleep is such a human weakness – Sincerely, HAL9000.

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Another story via Bloomberg on this problem re: People are not robots.

* Ah Wei has an explanation for Foxconn Technology Group Chairman Terry Gou why some of his workers are committing suicide at the company’s factory near the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. “Life is meaningless,” said Ah Wei, his fingernails stained black with the dust from the hundreds of mobile phones he has burnished over the course of a 12-hour overnight shift. “Everyday, I repeat the same thing I did yesterday. We get yelled at all the time. It’s very tough around here.”
* Conversation on the production line is forbidden, bathroom breaks are kept to 10 minutes every two hours and constant noise from the factory washes past his ear plugs, damaging his hearing, Ah Wei said. The company has rejected three requests for a transfer and his monthly salary of 900 yuan ($132) is too meager to send money home to his family.
* At least 10 employees at Taipei-based Foxconn have taken their lives this year, half of them in May, according to the company, also known as Hon Hai Group. The deaths have forced billionaire founder Gou to open his factories to outside scrutiny and apologize for not being able to stop the suicides.
* Foxconn’s Longhua complex outside Shenzhen spans three square kilometers (1.16 square miles) and is criss-crossed by tree-lined streets with a water fountain at the center of the facility. Workers wearing polo shirts emblazoned with ‘Foxconn’ in Chinese characters over their hearts walk along the streets. Men wear blue, women wear red. Security personnel wear white. The complex boasts its own hospital, a collection of restaurants and a swimming pool surrounded by palm trees.
* The workers, 86% of whom are under 25 years old, live in white dormitories with eight to ten people sleeping in a room. The living quarters have stairs running up the outside walls and the company has begun covering them with nets to prevent people from jumping.
* About 80% of the front-line production employees work standing up, some for 12 hours a day for six days a week, according to Liu Bin, a 24-year-old employee.
* “It’s hard to make friends because you aren’t allowed to chat with your colleagues during work,” Liu said at Shenzhen Kang Ning Hospital where he was seeking help for insomnia. “Most of us have little education and have no skills so we have no choice but to do this kind of jobs. I feel no sense of achievement and I’ve become a machine.” (somewhere HAL9000 is smiling)
* “The fundamental problem for Foxconn and other Chinese factories is that their business model relies on a low-cost workforce sourced from rural areas of China,” said Pun Ngai, a professor of applied social sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University “Due to its size, Foxconn has to be that much tougher than other factories, and has to become more emotionally detached from its employees than others.”
* Foxconn raised pay for workers by 30 percent to 1,200 yuan from 900 yuan a month, spokesman Ding said today. The additional money may not be enough to stem the suicides, according to Xiao Qi, a college graduate who works at Foxconn in product development. He earns 2,000 yuan a month, yet gets no joy from his job, he said. “I do the same thing every day; I feel empty inside,” said Xiao, who said he has considered suicide. “I have no future.”

Chinese Honda Strike a Wake-Up Call for Japan

By HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO — The strike that has crippled production at Honda Motor’s factories in China has come as a wake-up call to Japan’s flagship exporters as they seek to remain competitive and push into China’s burgeoning market with the help of low-wage workers.
Related

The strike by Chinese workers to protest pay and working conditions has cost Honda, Japan’s second-largest carmaker after Toyota, thousands of units in lost production in the world’s biggest auto market. The walkout began on May 17 at a Honda transmission factory in Foshan, in the southeast, and has shut down all four of Honda’s factories on the mainland.

“Honda takes the situation very seriously,” said Yasuko Matsuura, a spokeswoman for Honda in Tokyo. The company “is working toward reaching a resolution as soon as possible.” On Tuesday, there were conflicting accounts by the company and Chinese employees about how soon workers might return to their jobs.

In Tokyo, the strike has driven home a salient point: as Chinese incomes and expectations rise in line with the country’s rapid growth, while Japan’s own economy falters, the two countries face a realignment that could permanently alter the way their economies interact.

To complicate the picture, Japanese companies see the Chinese as crucial consumers of their goods to make up for a shrinking and aging market at home. Some of the most profitable Japanese companies, like Fast Retailing, which runs the budget clothing line Uniqlo, have relied on production in China since the 1990s to keep prices low.

“Japan is starting to realize that the age of cheap wages in China is coming to an end, and companies that looked to China only for lower costs need to change course,” said Tomoo Marukawa, a specialist on the Chinese economy at Tokyo University.

Despite the consequences for production costs, a rise in wages and standards of living in China would be welcomed by many Japanese exporters. The same companies that produce in China have also moved to sell their wares there, moving factories to the mainland to reduce costs further and meet the needs of local customers.

In Uniqlo’s case, as incomes in China rose, it followed up with local stores in 2002; the company has opened 64 outlets in China and aims to open 1,000 stores there in the next decade.

And yet, for Honda, prices of its cars in China may have to drop considerably before the company can truly tap into the market.

The strike by 1,900 workers at Honda’s Foshan factory came as a particularly big shock to Honda, which had announced just days before that it would increase production in China to meet demand.

Honda’s chief executive, Takanobu Ito, had said the automaker would begin major expansions at two joint ventures in China, Guangqi Honda and Dongfeng Honda, increasing capacity by 30 percent to 830,000 cars and minivans by 2012.

In April alone, Honda made 58,814 cars in China, a 28.7 percent increase from the same month the previous year and a monthly record.

Five of six Japanese car manufacturers with factories in China broke production records in April.

“The wave of motorization in China will not abate for the foreseeable future,” Mr. Ito said last week. He said that Guangqi Honda would introduce a compact car intended especially for the Chinese market that would be produced there in 2011.

The rise in output in China has been driven by a strong economic recovery in that country, which is buoying auto sales more than in any other major market. The rebound has been good news for Japanese automakers, hard-pressed to cut costs as they seek to return to profit after a collapse in car sales because of the global economic crisis.

Auto sales in Japan have remained sluggish, and sales in the United States and Europe have not rebounded to precrisis levels.

In China, Japanese carmakers are also racing to catch up with rivals after arriving relatively late in the market. The first Honda rolled out of a plant in Guangzhou in 1999, while Toyota did not produce in China until 2002.

Though sales have grown rapidly since then, Japanese carmakers are still struggling against local rivals because of a dearth of small, low-cost models, which are driving market growth in China.

Honda’s least expensive model sold in China, the Fit compact car with a 1.3-liter engine, is priced at about 83,000 renminbi, or about $12,500. A Chery QQ 1.3-liter minicar from the Chinese carmaker Chery Auto sells for about half the price of the Fit.

Given that the average monthly income in China s is 2,050 renminbi, about $300, the price of a Chery QQ is around 19 months’ salary, while the Honda Fit requires more than 40 months. The Honda Accord 2.4-liter sedan, meanwhile, sells in China for about $35,000, far beyond the reach of most workers.

For Honda, the promise of access to a huge, growing market in China was as much a factor as cheaper labor in luring it to open factories there. A 25 percent import tariff on foreign cars is also a major incentive for foreign automakers to produce in China.

More quickly than any other major Japanese automaker, Honda has started exporting cars made in China to third countries. A small plant in Guangdong makes its Jazz model for export.

Besides complaining about their pay, Honda’s striking workers complain about a wage gap: the company’s Japanese employees in China are paid about 50 times what local Chinese workers receive.

Experts say that at the factory level, Japanese companies will need to start changing the way they work with employees — giving them fair pay, benefits and a chance for promotion in line with those accorded to employees from headquarters in Japan.

“Japanese manufacturers need to raise morale by making sure that local staff can also climb within the company,” said Tatsuo Matsumoto, Asia researcher at the Japan Center for International Finance.

The dilemma of female college graduates in China

Studying abroad, pursuing a Master’s Degree, entering the civil service sector and marriage are most common choices of female college graduates in China nowadays. Finding private sector employment is the choice of only a small proportion of female students. The National Women’s Association released the results of a survey which indicated that 90% of female college graduates had sensed gender inequality and discrimination when seeking job opportunities.

Recently, MyCOS, a third-party research agency completed a survey of female students. The survey showed that the employment rate for female college graduates is 21%, which is much lower when compared to the 29.5% for male students.

It is common knowledge that female students have unequal opportunity in the job application process. Because of the physical limitations of female applicators, some employers are more inclined to recruit men. A few employers even put up whiteboards indicating “Positions for men”, “Priority – Boys” or even “We don’t accept girl students”. There is also invisible discrimination against females in the selecting of resumes and even though employers may not have specified a gender requirement in their job descriptions, they do not consider the resumes of girl students after accepting their CVs.

Female students are often asked private gender-related questions such as the status of their relationship, intention to marry and have children. Some are even asked to not get married for five years on being offered the job. Because of the unique business culture in China, questions like “Can you drink?” or “Can you travel a lot for business?” are also not rare.

Apart from the recruitment process, discrimination is also present with regard to the occupations and positions offered to female students on their employment. Compared to men, women are usually employed in service and labor-intensive industries, including education and health care, diet, secretary and performing arts industries. On March 3rd this year, a job fair for female college graduates held by the Beijing Graduates Employment Service Centre attracted more than 3,000 women applicants. However, disappointingly, more than 600 of the job posts were secretarial, accounting and customer service positions. In terms of promotion, priority is also always given to men in some companies. Men do core operational work while women often do civilian work in a company. Besides this, there is also a difference in income between men and women in the same positions requiring similar capabilities.

The reasons for the dilemma of female college graduates are as follows:
The overall employment situation in China is not that satisfactory.
Sexual discrimination against women in the job market and incomplete social assurance for women’s childbirth security has not harnessed women’s employment and development.
There are limitations in the selection of professions among female students themselves. Many are inclined to work in hot sectors like financial and media, and prefer to work in major cities rather than 2nd and 3rd tier cities.
There is gap between the needs of the job market and the existing allocation of majors and research areas in college.
To alleviate some of these concerns for companies and women, the government is expected to pay for maternity leave.

Companies and civil organizations are expected to work with colleges to establish institutions for female undergraduates to offer vocational training and courses on practical business operation. Voluntary service is also a good approach to improve the capacity of female students. Some celebrities are calling for the release of a national regulation on voluntary services to guarantee the rights and interests of volunteers, making voluntary services more complete and using it as a building platform for social practice for female students before their employment.

Companies can consider working with influential and experienced partners on campus. Since 2009, the National Women’s Association has promoted entrepreneurship on campus. The organization organized lectures and tours of women entrepreneurs, conveying a new philosophy of employment and entrepreneurship, encouraging female students to set up their own business by applying for micro-finance loans. It has also promoted the construction of social practice base for female students. Based on a partnership with a number of reputational and responsible enterprises, they offer a great deal of internship opportunities that lasts for 3 months to half a year for female students annually.

by Elyse Chen

Vocational school graduates popular in China’s job market

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) — Almost 96 percent of China’s secondary vocational school graduates found jobs on graduation last year, the Ministry of Education announced Wednesday.

It was the fifth straight year that the vocational graduate employment rate exceeded 95 percent.

The high employment rate reflected the huge market demand for medium-level technicians, said Wang Jiping, vice director of the ministry’s Department of Vocational and Adult Education.

Last year, 6.08 million students graduated from secondary vocational schools, and 95.99 percent of them were employed on graduation.

Wang said the qualifications in highest demand were manufacturing, information technology, civil engineering, trade and tourism, and transportation.

However, the threshold pay for graduates was relatively low.

A sample survey earlier this year in secondary vocational schools across China showed that a quarter of threshold pay was lower than 1,000 yuan (146 U.S. dollars) a month.

Wang said vocational schools across China should tailor curriculums to the demands of specific industries.

At the same press conference, ministry official Song Yonggang said 66,000 teachers would be recruited this year to work at rural schools in central and western China where teachers are in short supply.

The recruitment, under a program initiated in 2006, would see the central government guarantee the teachers equal pay with urban counterparts in their first three years.

Previously, teachers were reluctant to work in rural areas because the pay, funded from local budgets, was lower than in cities.