Category News of China

Survey: Fund management companies offer highest earning jobs in 2007

Thanks to last year’s bullish market, the financial sector provided the most lucrative jobs in China and fund management talents topped the 2007 salary rankings, The Economic Observer reported on Monday.

Executives, fund managers and high-caliber investment researchers were the top earners, according to Taihe Consulting, a human resources company, after conducting a survey on 15 large fund management companies in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen.

Industry insiders have attributed the high earnings to a shortage of fund management talents and the thriving fund businesses in 2007.

Even the current bearish market has not shown an adverse effect on fund employees’ incomes yet.

Statistics collected by Taihe in June indicated no signs of fixed income reductions among fund management employees. And flexible income was closely related to companies’ performances, it found. Some companies can still collect remarkable management fees in 2008 that are no less than last year’s, Taihe said.

The cash income of an employee comprises a fixed part and a flexible part in addition to their benefit package. The fixed part is made up of basic salary and allowances, and the flexible, accounting for 30 to 40 percent of the total income, is given as a merit-based bonus, such as year-end bonuses, or as sales commissions. Some positions even offer a flexible income that takes up as much as 50 percent of the total.

An employee with a Shenzhen-based fund management said: “The fixed salary was set at the beginning of the year, so there would be no big change. The flexible part may vary from person to person…some fund managers won’t necessarily get a smaller year-end bonus, because the payment is based on the rankings of fund performances.”

By contrast, listed securities companies already registered a year-on-year drop of 8.6 percent in salary payments in the first half of 2008, with some employees’ incomes reduced by more than 60 percent, according to a report by Shanghai Securities News in August.

From a regional perspective, fund management companies in Shanghai, a national financial hub, offered the most lucrative jobs in 2007, Taihe’s survey showed. Beijing came second and Shenzhen third.

The consulting company found that the lower-end salaries of fund management, real estate and high-tech sectors were quite similar. But at the very top level, the financial sector offered salaries that doubled what the high-tech gave, with real estate coming somewhere in between.

“Financial employees earned much higher salaries than people in the other industries in 2007,” a Taihe analyst said. “And undoubtedly the most lucrative jobs came from the fund sector.”

More job losses in S China amid global financial crisis

Another 1,500 workers in south China have fallen victim to the current global financial crisis as they will have to find new jobs when their factory closes next week.

Hong Kong-listed BEP International Holdings Limited announced it would shut its factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, on Monday after its exports had dropped drastically this year registering huge deficits, a company spokesman told Xinhua on Saturday.

The company was currently paying arrears to its 1,500 workers. Some had found employment with other factories in the southern Hong Kong border city.

BEP, founded in 1986, is an export-oriented company. Most of its annual output of 5 million units of home appliances was sold to Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

It set up the 22,000-square-meter Shenzhen factory in 1992.

Earlier this week, 7,000 workers were sacked in Dongguan, also in Guangdong, after the Hong Kong-listed Smart Union Group (Holdings) Limited closed two factories.

Smart Union Group is one of the world’s biggest toy makers. Most of its products are sold in the United States.

Lighting firms increase tech input

Energy-efficient lighting manufacturers are increasing their technological input to improve the life of new bulbs and cut prices.

Guangdong Shunxiang Energy-Saving Lighting Technology has developed a new kind of energy-saving bulb that could save up to 70 percent of the electricity used by traditional incandescent bulbs.

The life of the light bulb could reach more than 60,000 hours, 10 times that of regular energy-saving lamps and 100 times more than incandescent light bulbs, according to General Manager Lin Weihe.

“Our lamps with new technology only need to be changed every 10 years, but in the same period, a mercury vapor lamp or sodium vapor lamp would have to be changed 15 times,” Lin told China Daily.

The company, headquartered in Chaozhou, Guangdong province, is displaying its latest products at the ongoing 10th China Hi-tech Fair in Shenzhen.

The company plans to invest 500 million yuan in a new plant, which could be operational by 2010, with an annual production capacity of 3 million units.

European Union countries will ban the use of incandescent light bulbs in favor of energy-efficient lightings, following the United States and Australia, by the end of this decade.

China is also actively promoting the use of energy-saving lighting. It plans to sell at least 150 million highly efficient energy-saving light bulbs from 2006 to 2010.

Monster snaps up ChinaHR

US-based online recruitment service provider Monster yesterday secured complete control of ChinaHR.com, paying $174 million for the remaining 55 percent stake in the Chinese recruitment site.

Monster had said in its financial report for the second quarter of 2008 that it would pay $200 million to $225 million in cash to ChinaHR.com shareholders.

Monster said in 2005 that it would take the remainder if ChinaHR.com was unable to get listed within three years.

Analysts said the failure of the IPO was due to problems with ChinaHR.com’s profitability. The company suffered a loss of 150 million yuan in 2007, according to Monster’s financial statements for the year.

“The acquisition will give Monster a stronger presence in the Chinese online recruitment market,” said Edward Lo, executive vice-president of Monster China, who takes over as the interim CEO of ChinaHR.com while maintaining his current Monster post.

China’s online recruitment market is led by NASDAQ-listed 51Job with a 29 percent share, followed by ChinaHR.com with 24 percent, according to Beijing-based consulting firm Analysys International.

Although Monster’s acquisition comes amid a slump in US online labor demand due to the global financial crisis, Lo said it is an opportune time for Monster to invest in the Chinese market.

“The economic situation which has ups and downs is a cycle,” he said. “The merger is not a short-term investment but a long-term strategic partnership to create the best global recruitment platform.”

Liu Tong, an online industry analyst from Analysys International, said it is a good deal for Monster from a long-term perspective as China’s online recruitment market is growing rapidly. It grew 36 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2008.

In addition, ChinaHR.com’s loss does not mean it has operational problems, he said. In 2007, it achieved a revenue of 281 million yuan.

The merger with Monster means there will be enough cash flow to enhance its brands, he added.

More than 90 percent of ChinaHR.com’s revenue comes from the online recruitment compared to 33 percent of its rival 51job’s, Liu said, adding it means there is plenty of space for Monster to diversify ChinaHR.com’s future revenue structure.

Spirit of wanting to be own boss strong

CHINESE people are perceived as more likely to be their own boss running a business and this spirit of entrepreneurship is what franchise owners at an exhibition are hoping to tap into.

“Chinese are more enterprising than other people. We have the feeling they are more likely to do their own business rather than work for others,” Anton Widjaja, vice president of PT Top Food Indonesia, the operator of the country’s biggest fast-food chain 77 Esteler Juara Indonesia.

The company, which has 180 stores in Singapore, Australia and Indonesia, is looking for a master franchisee to tap the Chinese market. It aims to open the first store in Shanghai by the end of the year and open at least 10 stores within 2 years in cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The two-day 2008 Shanghai International Franchise Exhibition, which opened yesterday at the Shanghai International Exhibition Center, has lured 100 franchise owners and huge crowds. Among the exhibition participants were names in the dining industry such as Dio Coffee and Dicos fried chicken.

Franchising has seen an encouraging growth in China as it provides an easy way to do business and help brand owners to rapidly grow business in a market they may not be familiar with.

Last year, the sector in China’s mainland jumped 16 percent, with more than 2,600 franchisers operating in the country and over 200,000 franchised outlets, the Ministry of Commerce said.

Surplus labor pool shrinks before future revival

China’s labor market is in the pincer grip of dwindling surplus labor on one hand and growing unemployment on the other as a result of mass closures of outdated factories.

Apparently contradictory, these two rising trends have come to define the labor market of late. Employers are finding it difficult to find suitable workers and employees are scratching heads in their search for ideal positions.

In terms of labor supply, which has long been seen as a factor in the nation’s economic miracle, China has already entered a complicated era of a dwindling workforce and a shortage of skilled workers.

But don’t panic.

Cai Fang, a senior think tank economist from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, assured the Chinese leadership while correcting the widely accepted perception that China’s labor supply is still endlessly abundant.

According to some economists, the number of surplus laborers in rural areas alone surpasses 150 million, equivalent to half of the US’s total population.

But Cai insisted that this figure was inaccurate. He said 52 million would be a more realistic estimate.

Cai reported the research result when China’s highest leaders lent their ears to the country’s top-level economists in July to find solutions to the current economic headaches.

“Our research finding has revealed that surplus labor is far less than we expected,” said Cai, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

The number of surplus laborers is declining in rural regions. Cai assured the leadership, currently puzzled by rising inflation, energy supply and possible economic slowdown, that by 2020, China’s labor supply would increase at an encouraging pace.

To ensure a healthier economy, Cai said China needs to upgrade its economic structure and further improve the treatment of laborers and equip them with new skills and knowledge.

Since last year, the government has been determined to close the labor-intensive but energy-crunching factories. The impact is obvious as many of China’s factories are labor-intensive. This will continuously result in unemployment, said Liu Junsheng, a senior researcher from the Labor-Wage Institute affiliated to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Olympic volunteers well-received at Beijing job fair, newspaper says

Job hunters with Olympic experience got a positive reception at a large-scale job fair here, Monday’s China Youth Daily reported.

The fair on Sunday, the first after the Games, drew as many as 30,000 applicants.

More than 5,000 positions were offered by about 600 companies, including many big names such as China Life Insurance Company, Lenovo and Yum! Brands Inc.

Although not stated as a requirement, applicants with Olympic service experience were preferred by employers, the newspaper said.

An employee from Yum! who declined to be identified said that Olympic volunteers had a better sense of service, which companies needed.

China’s Hainan Airlines Co. Ltd and Grand China Air Co. Ltd will recruit 300 Olympic volunteers as stewards and 50 as managers, said Zhu Yimin, President of Hainan Airlines and Grand China Air last week.

He said Hainan Airlines and Grand China Air will introduce an “Olympic air crew” on selected routes, carrying forward the “Olympic spirit and offering service of high quality to customers”.

HK job market remains stable

HONG Kong’s employment remained stable for the quarter ending August with unemployment at 3.2 percent and underemployment at 1.9 percent, the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong said yesterday.

Total employment rose by 13,100 to 3,546,300 from June to August while the labor force grew by 17,600 to an all-time high of 3,675,400.

The number of jobless people rose by 4,500 to 129,100 while the number of underemployed fell by 900 to 69,000.

Unemployment fell in the decoration and maintenance, communications and manufacturing sectors, while there were more jobless people in sanitary services, education services and welfare and community services sectors.

Underemployment falls were mainly seen in foundation and superstructure construction and retail trade sectors, offsetting the rises in the decoration and maintenance, and miscellaneous personal services sectors.

Hong Kong Secretary for Labor and Welfare Matthew Cheung said the unemployment rate has remained unchanged notwithstanding the expansion in labor supply. Cheung warned that there was no ground for optimism in the face of global financial turbulence.

“With the further downside risks to the already challenging external environment, the uncertainties clouding over the near term outlook for the local economy have increased,” he said.

He added that the government will closely monitor the impact on job creation and employment while continuing to enhance training, retraining and employment services.

10 pilots told to pay $1.17m to leave airline

The courts have ordered 10 pilots of China Eastern Airlines to compensate their employer a total of nearly 8 million yuan ($1.17 million) for leaving their jobs, local media has reported.

The Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court ruled on Thursday that each of the pilots was to compensate the airline’s branch in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, 700,000 to 1 million yuan, depending on their service term and the training programs they received, the Changjiang Times reported.

Zhang Hua, who was ordered to pay 700,000 yuan to the airline, told the paper that the ruling was of no surprise to him.

Still, he said he did not regret leaving China Eastern.

“I don’t want to live under constant high pressure,” he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

“I want to work for a company that is humane and that has a relaxed atmosphere.”

In May last year, 13 pilots of the Wuhan branch of China Eastern handed in their resignations and were asked to pay a total compensation of more than 100 million yuan. The employer claimed that the money was to compensate it for the investments it made to train the pilots.

In August, the provincial labor arbitration committee ordered the 13 pilots to pay more than 9 million yuan to compensate the airline for their departure.

Daunted by the large amount, three of the pilots reportedly withdrew their resignations. The remaining 10 pilots brought their case to the Qiaokou District People’s Court.

The court later announced that the 10 pilots should compensate their employer a total of nearly 10 million yuan. The airline lodged an appeal to the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court, which made the final ruling this Thursday.

Zhang Qihuai, a legal expert with the China University of Political Science and Law, said he had told the pilots in a legal consultation that the compensation being ordered by the courts was reasonable, since the amount was about what the company had paid for training the pilots.

“Most State-owned carriers in China sign tenure contracts with pilots to prevent them from leaving the company,” Zhang said.

Company officials in Wuhan and Shanghai declined to comment on the ruling on Friday.

China state executive posts attract rising number of applicants

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) — More than 2,700 people have applied for 16 executive positions of the centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) open for public competition this year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said.

The 2,745 applicants more than doubled that of those applying for last year’s 22 posts.

Of this year’s available posts, six received 200 to 300 applicants for each.

SASAC said the positions included three general managers, 10 deputy general managers and three chief accountants from different industries. They covered electricity, metallurgy, electronics, chemical engineering and trade firms.

China FAW Group Corporation, China Baosteel Group and China Southern Power Grid, all ranked among the world’s top 500 companies, were also recruiting.

SASAC also said 383 applicants, 12 from overseas and four from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, met the qualifications. They have been notified to sit for a written exam to be held soon.

Most qualified applicants have post-graduate degrees and are aged under 45, while 140 currently are heads of enterprises. In addition, 69, or 18 percent, have overseas working or study experience.

In 2003, SASAC started to recruit from both home and abroad. The agency hoped such managers could help improve the competitiveness of SOEs in the global market.