Category Working in China

Graduates pick study over job market

More than 30 percent of college graduates choose postgraduate study over job hunting because they believe looking for work is too difficult, a study shows.

Zhang Xiaochu, director of Haidian human resource service center, said 33.7 percent of the 2,641 college students surveyed said they would study for a higher degree, including 8.58 percent of respondents who want to study abroad.

He said the employment situation remains challenging because of the financial crisis, intense competition and the gap between employers’ expectations and the capability of graduates.

The Beijing municipal education commission said last week that there were about 209,000 university graduates in Beijing in 2009 and more than 10,000 graduates have still not found a job.

These people will continue to fight for jobs against 219,000 fresh graduates in 2010, making job hunting even more intense.

“We can not find satisfactory jobs and so many classmates of mine choose to study further,” said Cui Yan, who graduated from Capital University of Economics and Business in the summer of 2009.

He said 10 out of the 34 people in his class who did not find jobs immediately are planning to study further.

Cui was employed at a public relations agency in July but quit because he thought the job was too hard and the wage too low. He said many of his classmates had similar wage expectations.

“I think our mentality has a little problem,” Cui said.

He said they cannot put up with the busy work and are not satisfied with their salary.

The report from Zhang’s center also found employers need employees who can work independently as soon as possible, but the biggest problems graduates face is a lack of experience.

The Haidian human resource service center and the Renmin University of China conducted the survey in July.

As many as 3,275 questionnaires were sent out to 36 colleges in Beijing and 2,641 effective replies were collected, about 70 percent of who will graduate in 2010.

College graduates job fair opens in Nanjing

The annual college graduates job-hunting fair has also opened in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province. Over 42,000 employment opportunities from nearly 1,000 companies are being offered at the event. Figure show, that Jiangsu Province will have a record high of 532,000 fresh college graduates this year. But the event participating companies is only offering 3 percent more jobs compared with a year ago.

In order to get employed, many graduates have lowered their expectations for salaries. Experts say, one of the best ways to boost the employment rate is to improve program designs at universities.

Wang Shufeng, Head of Student Enroll of China Institute of Industrial Relations said “Previously, our graduates could not find a suitable position even after taking 10 job interviews. After some research and study, we realized that our school program and training designs should meet the real social human resource demand. So now, 90 percent of our students today could seal a employment contract before official graduation ceremony.”

Professor Cheng Yanyuan, School of Industrial Relations & HR, Renmin University said “Professional schools at high education institutions should focus on the areas they are good at. They should be able to provide professional talents in specific fields. Program designs at big universities should also have some adjustments to emphasis their unique characteristics. “

Taiwan jobless rate drops slightly

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s jobless rate dropped to 6.04 percent in September, 0.09 percentage points down from a record high recorded in the previous month, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday. However, the seasonally adjusted rate hit a record high of 6.09 percent, up from the 6.07 percent recorded in August, the agency said.

In September, the number of unemployed people totaled 661,000, down 11,000 from the previous month, when a record 6.13 percent was recorded, due mainly to new graduates flooding the job market.

According to the results of a survey released Thursday, some 48 percent of the people who lost their jobs over the past year did so involuntarily, and the unemployed were jobless for six months on average.

The results of the survey conducted Oct. 8-21 by the online human resources company 1111 Job Bank show that 21.34 percent of the unemployed were jobless for more than a year, 12.23 percent were jobless for two or three months, and 11.03 percent took one month to find a new job.

An executive in charge of public relations at 1111 Job Bank attributed the high ratio of long-term job seekers to their lack of ability, their slim competitive edge and their unrealistic expectations of their prospects.

The number of job applications sent out by each unemployed person averaged 81, for a total of just six interviews, according to the survey results.

Since July, the number of jobs has been increasing month by month , but with the influx of large numbers of new graduates into the job market, the unemployment situation has not improved much, according to the executive.

A total of 1,431 valid samples were collected for the survey, which had a margin of error of 2.24 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent.

RBS aggressive in hiring talent in China

Royal Bank of Scotland, whose private banking entity in Singapore reported mass resignations by 70 employees recently, will continue to hire aggressively for its investment banking business in China, China Daily reported Thursday.

The bank would try to attract and retain talents in China and stick to its stated goal of becoming a top-five banking entity in the country, the newspaper said, citing John Hourican, chief executive of RBS’ Global Banking and Markets operations.

The Edinburgh-based bank recently announced a barrage of new hires in China in a bid to beef up its investment banking business. Among the key appointments, the bank named Raymond Yin, who joined RBS from JP Morgan where he was chief representative and head of general industrials for the China market, as the co-head of investment banking for China.

The move comes in the backdrop of a battle for banking talent in Asian countries, especially in the private and investment banking sectors. Citigroup recently appointed Rodney Tsang, a senior investment banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as co-head of its China investment banking team.

RBS is now 70-percent owned by the British government.

HK graduates start internships in Chinese mainland

HONG KONG, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — About 200 university graduates in Hong Kong have or will soon set off to various Chinese mainland cities as interns, said a Hong Kong official on Tuesday.

The cities include Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Panyu and Hangzhou.

Speaking at a ceremony for the Internship Program for University Graduates on Tuesday, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government’s Commissioner for Labor Cherry Tse said the program provides 4,000 places for university graduates to work as interns and receive training for six to 12 months in local or Chinese mainland enterprises. Up to 1,000 places are earmarked for Chinese mainland internships.

For local internships, graduates receive training in their capacity as employees and are paid wages commensurate with the duties, responsibilities and content of the training posts. An employer is eligible to receive a training subsidy of 2,000 HK dollars per intern per month.

Mainland internships are not premised on an employment relationship. Interns are entitled to a living allowance of 3,000 HK dollars per month and depending on circumstances, an accommodation allowance of 1,500 HK dollars per month from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

Tse said as of Oct. 15, about 1,000 graduates have been employed by local enterprises as interns under the program. Their average monthly salary is 8,800 HK dollars and the highest offer is 22,000 HK dollars.

City job market recovering from financial crisis

THE city’s job market is recovering from the global economic downturn with the number of jobs created at the same level as before the crisis, the Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau said yesterday.

The number of jobs available in the city’s human resources market exceeded 120,000 in August, almost the same as last October when the financial crisis began to affect the job market in Shanghai.

Of these, the number of new jobs reached 40,000. Though still 20.43 percent fewer new jobs were created compared with last year, the figure was much lower than February’s 72.9 percent rate of decline over the previous year.

“Since the economy is getting better in the city and the government has launched a series of jobs-boosting measures, the job market is stepping out of the downturn and getting better,” said Li Ying, of the department of promoting employment in the Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.

However, the bureau didn’t release figures for the unemployment rate.

Shanghai reported a registered unemployment rate of 4.3 percent last year. Local authorities pledged to create 500,000 job positions this year, with an unemployment rate controlled at about 4.5 percent.

From January to August, the city created 466,800 new jobs, helped 11,370 business startups, and provided vocational training to 105,300 people after a series of job stimulus efforts was launched at the beginning of this year.

The stimulus packages featured preferential policies for business startups, vocational training and internship plans for fresh graduates.

Job seekers switch to online business

Wang Dengfeng works as an interior decorator, but he is never splattered with paint at the end of the day and he has not once hurt his back moving furniture.

Instead of decorating stores and homes in the three-dimensional world, the 31-year-old designs and beautifies shops in the virtual world, making them appealing to online shoppers.

The career earns him between 5,000 yuan ($735) and 10,000 yuan each month, an income considered handsome, even for white-collar workers in big cities.

Wang is among an increasing number of Chinese young people earning their living online.

According to a recent popular online post, there are at least 36 kinds of online jobs, including online hourly workers and online shop assistants.

It is not known how many people make their living in the online world. Many work online part-time.

One of the most successful online workers is Kuang Baoqiang, from Yangjiang, Guangdong province, who earned more than 100,000 yuan last year as a professional blogger.

Kuang started to write blogs about basketball on sina.com.cn in 2006.

He has posted some 1,200 blogs, and attracted more than 38 million visits so far.

His popularity earned him a contract last year from a domestic firm that makes sports products that wanted to advertise on his blog.

Vivian Lin, from Jiangsu province, failed to secure a satisfying job after she graduated from college in 2005. Last month, after being unemployed for six months, she opened an online shop “Lin club” in the hopes of following in the footsteps of such online success stories as Kuang and Wang.

“A satisfying job is not easy to find nowadays,” she said. “But shopping and web surfing happen to be my two hobbies, so I decided to give it a shot.”

The shop has not got off the ground yet, but she has high hopes.

“I have much more to learn before I can make real money through this job,” she said.

Experts believe online employment will become increasingly important for unemployed young people.

Chen Xinming, a professor with South China Normal University, said young people should be encouraged to explore the option. But Chen said more study of the growing sector is needed to make sure young online workers are not exploited.

Guest Comment: the state of recruitment in Hong Kong

During the first six months of 2009, Hong Kong was inundated with retrenchments, salary cuts and hiring freezes, but the third quarter saw optimistic signs of a recovering hiring market.

The number of bank positions available swelled by about 20 per cent in Q3, with most of these jobs in the front-office.

Mainland Chinese banks in Hong Kong, for example, are already aggressively seeking to increase headcount in their global markets divisions. They report a high demand for relationship managers, sales professionals and retail brand managers to meet their growing needs.

Such developments are largely due to China’s advocacy of a “two financial centres” model. Hong Kong’s free market economy, together with Shanghai’s broad integration of mainland business and legal traditions, create an environment which is both competitive and complementary and which will assist the future growth of a financial infrastructure in Greater China.

However, despite the general recruitment surge, many banks are only cautiously optimistic. Although the number of bank job opportunities has increased, employers have imposed stricter hiring requirements during the selection process. Most notably, the number of interview rounds each candidate now goes through has increased to at least four or five, up from two or three in 2008.

Meanwhile, candidates have more or less tempered their salary expectations. Many unemployed job seekers see the value in being more flexible in terms of their total compensation and benefits packages, and some are even willing to accept a lower salary than their previous position.

By contrast, those who are already employed still expect increments of 10 to 15 per cent before they will consider jumping ship. But the problem here is that employers – even those which have increased their hiring – may not necessarily be able to offer such salaries. And to make things even more difficult for hiring banks to woo exceptional professionals, many rival firms are equally determined to retain their talents.

Job opportunities offered for university graduates

A nationwide employment campaign was launched in Shanghai yesterday (Sept 19) to provide university graduates with job opportunities in co-operation with chain stores and franchisers at home and abroad.

The campaign, sponsored by the China Chain Stores and Franchises Association, is the first of its kind in the country, and combines universities with businesses to help graduates solve the difficulty of finding jobs.

“To solve this issue, we need not only concern from the government. It’s also a responsibility for chain store businesses,” said Pei Liang, secretary general of the association.

Pei said many franchisers have worked out preferential policies to encourage graduates to start their own chain store and franchise business while employing some of them to work in their companies.

The campaign, which will extend to Guangzhou, Xi’an and Beijing, has firm support from the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Education and the Shanghai Municipal Education Committee.

Meanwhile, an exhibition for international chain stores and franchisers opened at the Shanghai International Exhibition Center on Saturday to echo the campaign.

Many branded retailers and franchisers, including Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc and Yum! Brands Inc, introduced their management concepts and preferential policies for graduates starting businesses at the show.

“Human resources are invaluable for an enterprise wishing to lead the industry,” said Sun Jian, CEO of Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc, which plans to employ 600 graduates from universities next year.

Sun’s plan was echoed by Wang Hongyu, HR Director of Yum! Brands Inc China Division, who said his company has employed 3000 graduates this year and more will be hired next year.

Other firms introduced policies on loans and management subsidies at the campaign-launching ceremony to help solve funds shortage in running chain stores.

Job-hunting graduates prefer State-owned to foreign companies

More Chinese graduates prefer to work for a State-owned company than for a foreign-owned enterprise, according to a new survey.

The findings were based on surveys of 21,000 graduating college students across China by the human resources company www.chinahr.com.

It is the first time in seven years that Chinese companies came out on top.

Foreign companies received a historically low vote of 23 percent, compared with 34.1 percent for State-owned businesses in the poll.

“Advantages such as more stable employment and better employee benefits at State-owned companies proved to be more attractive to college students, especially given the global economic slowdown,” said Ouyang Hui, a human resources (HR) research supervisor at www.chinahr.com.

“Foreign companies, joint ventures and private enterprises cut back staff or scaled down recruiting plans last year, while State-owned businesses endeavored to create job opportunities for graduates in accordance with official policy,” Ouyang said.

Chen Jiang, a master’s degree graduate of Peking University, the most prestigious in China, moved to a State-owned integrated circuit company this summer after originally being hired by a foreign company in the same line of business.

To his surprise, Chen said, a lot of his classmates who worked for well-known foreign companies asked him to keep an eye out for any opportunities for them.

US-based Procter & Gamble and Google are the only two foreign companies in the top 10, according to the poll.

China Mobile ranked first for the second time, while past favorites Microsoft and IBM ranked 11th and 12th, respectively.

Ouyang said the State-owned companies started to attract more recruits in 2007.

According to researchers, students were attracted most by fair human resources policies and opportunities for development and advancement when choosing a job.

Salary and benefits were the top factors in 2008. This year benefits ranked fourth, and salary ranked ninth.

“It is a good phenomenon if the investigations were conducted scientifically,” said Mike Wang, HR manager of Morgan Stanley China.

“It means students could have more choices when selecting a job. But to us, it’s less relevant,” Wang said.

“As a leading foreign company in the field, we always pay attention to college students and try to provide them with the best career path. And we respect individual choices according to their own situations,” he said.

To learn more about graduates’ needs and preferences during campus recruitment periods, Morgan Stanley conducted its own survey in the first half of 2009 among students at Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan and Shanghai Jiaotong universities.

“We broadened our recruitment outreach based on the results, such as expanding our information channels through campus bulletin boards and other popular online forums posting job-hunting information, so that graduates would have a clear picture of what we can offer them,” Wang said.

“To further contribute to the community and also enhance communications between graduates and Morgan Stanley, we have been sponsoring the Morgan Stanley Scholarship Program at leading universities in China since 2006,” he added.

Yi Siting, 25, a master’s graduate from Renmin University of China, chose Bank of China as her career starting point this spring, but denied the economic situation was her main consideration while job hunting.

“At State companies such as Bank of China, a lot of relaxation activities will be organized, which makes employees feel like part of a family. Large companies give me a sense of belonging and security,” she said

Yi’s close friend Tang Fang, from Peking University, said she prefers foreign companies to any other kind, saying they had more management expertise and a freer atmosphere.

But Yi disagreed.

“Actually, most State companies such as Bank of China always hire a lot of people from abroad, and it has a very open and modern management style,” Yi said.

“Nowadays, the gap between State-owned companies and foreign ones in this respect has become narrower and narrower,” she said.

As HR commissioner at a State-owned telecommunication company, Wu Yao was pleased with the poll results.

But he added that he didn’t expect State-owned companies to prevail in the long term.

“As the distance between Chinese companies and foreign counterparts narrows, students will choose employers according to their own background, personal working style and interests, regardless of whether it is foreign or State-owned,” Wu said.

“All companies have realized the importance of human resources,” Wu added.