Recruiting in China

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Nearly 40 percent of people in a new poll conducted by 1111 Jobs Bank expressed an interest in working in the financial industry, due to higher pay and better prospects for the industry in the wake of the signing of a cross-strait financial memorandum of understanding (MOU).

The jobs bank released its survey in a news conference yesterday.

The poll found nearly 40 percent of respondents thinking about entering the financial industry. Their top three reasons were: having an expertise in the area, having an interest in the area and good pay.

By market segment, over 50 percent wanted to work in banks, while 17 percent wanted to work in securities or futures trading.

At the same time, 43.59 percent wanted to work with foreign firms, 37.18 percent wanted to work with local firms, and 9.83 percent wanted to work with state-run businesses.

Some 64 percent of respondents said their interest in the financial industry increased because of the MOU, which was signed in November and will take effect in January next year. The MOU will allow Taiwan and Chinese financial operators to invest in each other's market.

Eighty-five percent of respondents said they would like to work in China as a result of the MOU.

The top three reasons for their interest in doing so were: more challenging work, prospects for good earnings for mainland Chinese firms operating in Taiwan and a more international environment.

The top three reasons for a non-interest in working in China were: unwillingness to go to China, unwillingness to work with the Chinese people and the ever-changing nature of China's work environment.

The survey was conducted by 1111 Jobs Bank from Dec. 2 to 15 on salary workers. A total of 1,239 eligible surveys were returned. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 2.41 percent.

An expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has said that the employment situation in 2009 is better than expected. The director of the Academy's Sociology Institute, Li Peilin, said on Monday that although China experienced its worst unemployment in three years this year, the situation has been better than expected.

Most rural migrant workers who lost their jobs during the financial crisis in 2008 have already returned to the cities and found new jobs. Meanwhile, more than 6 million college graduates have found jobs this year.

Figures from the Ministry of Education show that the employment rate for new graduates was 74 percent in July and August.

Employment has been a huge challenge for China in 2009, after a record 6.1 million recent college graduates entered the job market. With the new year fast approaching, the country plans to continue the priority of finding them employment.

Although most graduates have secured jobs in urban areas, fierce competition and limited experience, has left many with low salaries and unpromising career prospects. The Ministry of Education says a record 6.3 million university students will graduate in 2010, creating more pressures on urban employment. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Securities plans to adjust the employment structure, by implementing policies to encourage graduates to work in less-developed regions in the mid-west, rural areas and in small and medium-sized enterprises.

China's proactive employment policies and measures in the wake of the financial crisis have generated positive results, Yin Weimin, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, said on Saturday.

China is expected to create over 11 million jobs in 2009, well above the target set in March this year, Yin said.

In a most important measure taken since the beginning of this year, millions of enterprises nationwide had been allowed to delay the payment of enterprise-contributed social security funds for up to six months, said Yin.

China's social security system is made up of five parts -- pension insurance, medical insurance, work injury insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance.

The measure also temporarily lowered the insurance rates for medical, work injury, unemployment and maternity. In the meantime, the government offered subsidies over the payment of social security funds for enterprises which were in financial difficulties.

Yin told Xinhua that this measure alone had eased corporate burden by nearly 33.9 billion yuan ($5 billion) in the first 10 months this year and more than 1.6 million enterprises had benefited from this measure.

According to Yin, China had generated 10.13 million new jobs in urban areas in the first eleven months, exceeding the government's target of 9 million new jobs for the entire year.

The urban unemployment rate would likely stand at 4.3 percent by the end of this year, which also met the target of below 4.6 percent set in March, he said.

In 2008, China's urban unemployment rate was 4.2 percent.

BEIJING, CHINA: China has kicked off its first global hiring campaign for money managers to help invest its US$2.3 trillion (S$3.2 trillion) of foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest stockpile, an official said.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe) is seeking to improve returns on its bulging reserves and it recognises that the tumult in global financial markets has left many bankers looking for new jobs, a Safe official told Reuters.

'It is time for us to hunt talent from overseas financial markets, as the post-crisis economic outlook becomes clear to financial professionals and their institutions,' said the official, who declined to be named.

The administration posted job advertisements on its website in October for positions ranging from portfolio managers to research staff, though the hiring campaign has remained low-key so far. The official declined to say how many foreigners Safe hopes to bring on board.

Analysts said the global hiring campaign was part of the agency's drive to diversify China's currency reserves, a long-standing official goal. 'With our foreign exchange reserves growing, the team of staff that manages the reserve assets should also be strengthened,' said Professor Ding Zhijie at the University of International Business and Economics.

China Investment Corp, the country's US$300 billion sovereign wealth fund, has staged two rounds of global hiring since its inception in 2007.

Safe employs about 200 reserve managers, 80 per cent of whom hold master's degrees or higher and 40 per cent of whom hold internationally recognised professional certificates.

SINGAPORE: About 1,000 Singaporeans vied for 100 top financial jobs at the "Career in China Job Fair" held at Suntec Singapore on Sunday.

Jobs search website JobsDB said it is the first time high-level financial institutions from China have come together to attract talent from Singapore.

18 Chinese banks and institutions were at the fair, including Bank of Shanghai and the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The salary ranges for the top jobs on offer were between S$100,000 and S$400,000 per year.

Job search engine Simply Hired said it launched a localized destination Web site for China.

Mountain View-based Simply Hired said its expansion broadens its Asia presence and joins localized job Web sites in 16 other countries across five continents and in nine languages.

Through its partnership with Mountain View-based LinkedIn, Simply Hired China will also allow job seekers to find connections they have within companies.

鈥淗iring managers are starting to find it difficult to fill open positions in China because the demand for workers rose more than 14 percent in the third quarter from 2008," the company said.

A delegation of financial organizations in Shanghai started a global recruiting tour Friday afternoon, hoping to fill 115 vacancies by the end of the trip.

The 17 organizations will hold three job fairs overseas, or in New York on Dec. 5, Toronto on Dec. 9 and Singapore on Dec. 13, to recruit high level financial talents.

A similar move last year brought 66 financial talents to the city, of whom five are enlisted in a national program on hiring overseas specialists and each enjoys 1 million yuan (146,400 U.S. dollars) in subsidies from the central government.

Ji Wenguan, head of Shanghai Financial Work Commission, told Xinhua that the Shanghai municipal government was planning to provide support of housing, insurance and education for the talents.

Tax cuts would also be provided for them, said Fang Xing, director of Shanghai Finance Office.

Fang said "Talents and innovation are prerequisite to building Shanghai into an international financial center."

"It is a golden opportunity to do creative work here, work that can really make a difference, as the financial sector is developing rapidly in China," said Hua Lei, who was recruited last year and is now supervisor of high-end wealth management at Orient Securities.

In addition, the education and medical care level in Shanghai was as good as anywhere else in the world, Hua said.

"Our payment package is competitive and flexible in the global market," said Yang Qingzhong, human resource manager of Haitong Securities Co., Ltd.

Yang said his company was very satisfied with the performance of the high level talents recruited last year and was offering seven more important posts this time, including manager of assets management division.

Bank of Communications, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Haitong Securities Co., Ltd and other big names in the Chinese financial sector are among the 17 recruiting organizations.

MACAO, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- A total of 16,321 persons were employed in Macao's manufacturing sector at the end of the third quarter of 2009, dropping significantly by 31.8 percent year-on-year, according to the figures released on Thursday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

The average earnings of full time employees in the manufacturing sector rose by 4.8 percent year-on-year to 5,630 patacas (713 U.S. dollars) in the third quarter this year, the DSEC figures indicated.

As for the hotels and restaurants sector, there were a total of47,345 paid employees in the period, dropping by 4.4 percent over last year, and the average earnings also decreased by 1.4 percent to 9,960 patacas (1,261 dollars).

Meanwhile, the local financial sector employed 5,475 persons in the third quarter, dropping by three percent year-on-year, with 4,640 working in local banks. The average earnings for full-time employees in the period rose marginally by 0.1 percent year-on-year to 17,470 patacas (2,211 U.S. dollars).

At the end of September this year, the Manufacturing, Hotels and restaurants and Financial sectors reported 1,534, 3,790 and 163 vacancies respectively, down 15.8 percent, 5.7 percent and 8.9percent year-on-year, according to the DSEC.?

Private equity (PE) backed companies were more profitable and successful in creating jobs than their publicly listed peers in China over the past seven years, according to a survey conducted by Bain & Company and the European Union Chamber of Commerce.

The survey compared the performance of 100 companies that received at least $20 million PE funding, excluding real estate and bank investments, with 2,424 publicly listed Chinese companies between 2002 and 2008.

PE firms recorded nearly 100 percent growth in jobs and 56 percent in profits over their bigger peers during the period.

More importantly PE firms have fostered inland province development, boosted domestic consumption, transferred management know-how to businesses under their portfolios and greatly improved corporate governance, the survey said.

"Although private equity is a relatively new phenomenon in China, it is fast gaining ground and scoring over others," said Michael Thorneman, managing partner, Bain & Company Greater China.

The biggest contribution of private equity has been the creation of better-run companies. Companies with PE shareholders posted annual revenue growth of 25 percent and an average earnings growth of 39 percent, up 3 percentage points and 12 percentage points over the benchmark companies.

The survey also shows that PE investors are showing keen interest in China's consumer goods and retail industry. While PE investment in China as a whole increased by 58 percent since 2002, investment in the consumer goods and retail industries grew by 77 percent.

PE investments in consumer and retail businesses now rival those in traditionally strong sectors like IT and media.

Retailers backed by PE investors reported sales growth of 47 percent compared with 16 percent for publicly listed retail companies. Consumer goods companies backed by PE investors showed sales growth of 30 percent against 18 percent for listed peers.

"Over 50 percent of the PE firms that participated in the survey felt that consumer products and retail sectors are the most promising sectors, but also felt that the sector would become more competitive in the future," said Thorneman.

Total employment at private equity-financed firms increased by 16 percent over the survey period compared with 8 percent at publicly listed companies. PE-backed firms also pay significantly higher wages. The gross salary growth rates at PE-backed companies outperformed those of the listed companies by 7 percentage points.

Private equity has also been a strong contributor to the government's "Go West" policies. The survey found that 42 percent of the investment was directed to companies headquartered in inland provinces.

"China has emerged as one of the leading destinations for PE capital, and PE capital has a more positive image in China than in other western countries," said Andre Loesekrug-Pietri, chairman of the European Chamber's PE working group.

For those with a financial background who are looking for an opportunity to work overseas, China may be the place to go.

Reuters cites a Chinese government official saying that China鈥檚 State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) began its first global recruitment search for money managers to aid in the investment of the country鈥檚 $2.3 trillion of foreign exchange reserves.

A SAFE official told Reuters that the government would like to increase its return on the reserves and wants to tap into the global resources of bankers who may be looking for a job.

The official, who could not be named because he was not authorized to talk to the media, told the news source, "It is time for us to hunt talent from overseas financial markets, as the post-crisis economic outlook becomes clear to financial professionals and their institutions."

According to the SAFE website, there are a range of positions open such as, portfolio managers, operations and legal consultants and research staff. Applicants should have a working knowledge of both Chinese and English as well as at least two years of work experience at a well known financial institution.

The government official interviewed by the Reuters declined to say how many foreign workers SAFE was looking to hire.

According to oDesk research, China is a popular country for providers on its site. There are currently 947 providers from China who charge an average hourly rate of $18.27 for their services.

Wu Liwei, a postgraduate major in journalism from Renmin University of China, has been trying to find a job for some time. And though the 24-year-old is yet to get a satisfactory offer, Wu said yesterday that she still felt lucky and hopeful.

"Next year looks better than even this year," Wu said. "A friend who majored in the same subject last year said many big companies had stopped recruiting then."

But this year, staff from a lot more companies, including big names, visited her university for campus recruitment. "I have attended about 10 such recruitment fairs, and many of my classmates have got offers. I am waiting for the right one," she said.

Most university graduates like Wu feel the same. And it's true that China's recruitment prospects are better now than last year or early this year.

Buoyed up by the ongoing economic recovery and domestic consumption, the willingness of potential employers to hire people in 2010 will be stronger than this year, with companies in second-tier cities showing greater interest, a Manpower survey released yesterday said.

According to the survey, conducted by the world's leading employment service provider, 19 percent of the potential employers said they would hire people in the first quarter of next year - 2 percentage points higher than in the fourth quarter of 2008, and also the highest since late last year.

Those who aim to cease recruitment in the next quarter add up to only 5 percent of the total, 1 percentage point lower than in the previous quarter and the lowest in a year.

Manpower has done such quarterly recruitment studies in China for five years. This time, it interviewed 4,317 enterprises from home and abroad for the survey.

"Actually, the recovery helped improve China's labor market from the second quarter of this year," said Danny Yuan, managing director for Manpower China. "Now, employers are more confident of hiring people next year,"

Xu Zhixue, senior consultant with Beijing-based Zuoyou Consulting Group, a leading local human resource service provider, corroborated Yuan.

Zuoyou's clients are usually big State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in telecom, aerospace and mining sectors, such as Beijing Mobile. "They (SOEs) were worried over the economic trend and most of them had scaled back their recruitment," Xu said.

"But since the last quarter, they have recovered their confidence. Now, we are much busier than before," he said.

China's economy began showing strong signals of recovery in the third quarter of this year, with GDP growth reaching 8.9 percent. Decline in exports began easing off, too, and the sector is expected to have taken to the growth trajectory in late 2009.

According to Manpower, employers in the finance, insurance and real estate sectors could be the biggest recruiters next year, with the mining and construction industries registering the fastest growth in the past quarter.

The survey also shows employers in cities like Chongqing, Xi'an, Qingdao, Wuhan, and Suzhou expect to see a stronger hiring environment than their counterparts in major cities.

With Christmas spending just around the corner and memories of frozen annual bonuses lingering from last year, many companies in Beijing are calming employee concerns with news they will come through with cash regardless of economic woes.

"Though some companies said they won't pay out a bonus in 2009, the majority said they would pay no matter what the impact on the business was," said Tommy Li, a senior consultant at Mercer, one of the largest international HR consulting firms operating in China.

Li, who was the product manager for the China Monitor Report, a quarterly survey containing the most updated HR trends in China, said most companies froze or postponed yearly bonuses in 2008 due to the dire global financial situation.

The China Monitor Report, which surveyed over 290 companies, found that more than 69 percent confirmed they would pay yearly bonuses this year despite the global financial crisis. Only 4 percent of companies said they would not.

In addition to the return of year-end bonuses, the China Monitor index found that jobs are on the rise. In the fourth quarter of 2009, over 78 percent of business said they had plans to hire new employees and less than 10 percent said they would downsize.

One sales director of a Beijing-based metals business said that he fears his company will lose employees in the reviving employment market. With the exception of last year, he said he has noticed a trend of employees leaving his company after receiving their yearly bonuses.

"There's a joke in my office about it. Every year, out of the 15 people that report to me, I lose anywhere from three to five," he told METRO, requesting that he not be named.

He said employees feel less incentive to stick around after receiving the year-end payout.

Though the company gave out bonuses last year, much to his surprise, he said his salary had been frozen. "This year, with companies starting to hire again, I expect to see a lot of movement. Most people stayed at their jobs last year, grateful just to have a paycheck, but with confidence restored and hiring resuming, I think this year will be different," he said.

The Accor hotel group on the other hand is taking a different approach to distributing end of the year bonuses.

"The bonuses of our salaried employees engaged in the corporate office are assessed against several criteria - including the performance of the company," said Robert Murray, Senior Vice President of Greater China for the ACCOR Hotel group.

Murray, who has been working with Accor, a foreign public company listed in France, for more than five years has seen shifts in the market. He said Accor's system allows employees to share in both the good times and the more "challenging times", such as the 2009 economic crisis.

"Although it is yet to be determined, it is fair to say that bonuses for this year will be examined in line with results," Murray said.

He added that employees at the hotels, outside of the corporate office, are usually given bonuses based on individual successes of their hotel.

"There will be mixed outcomes of bonus payments to these employees," he said.

Spurred by the healthcare reform launched by the central government, healthcare has now become the hot destination for domestic and foreign venture capital (VC).

The buzz has been the most active in the bio-pharmaceutical sector which has raised funds to the tune of nearly $130 million in the first half of the year.

The sector accounted for 20 percent of the investment deals signed in China during the same period, according to a report by Zero2IPO, a leading domestic service provider for the venture capital and private equity industry.

"The ratio is pretty high. The passion (for bio-pharmaceuticals) has been ignited by the predictable growth potential in China's healthcare industry and the growing demand for biopharmaceuticals," said Zheng Yufen, senior manager for healthcare at the investment banking division of Zero2IPO.

"Talks are also on for a slew of other investment deals in the bio-pharmaceutical sector and hopefully they would be sewn up by the end of the year," she said.

"The bio-pharmaceutical segment often sees mega deals and would continue to catch the fancy of venture capitalists for some time to come."

In January, Kerry Bio-Science, a Zhejiang-based life science research pharmaceutical company, raised its second round of funding worth $13 million from KPCB China and some institutional investors. Kerry Bio-Science will use the funds to set up a new development and research center and expand its output capacity.

The Kerry Bio-Science deal sparked a flurry of investment in the bio-pharmaceuticals sector. Macrostat, a clinical research data provider on bio-pharmaceuticals, got investment, with no details available, from Tigermed Consulting and Qiming Venture Partners. In May, KPCB China made its second investment this year, in Nanjing-based Genscript Corporation, a leading bio-pharmaceutical research outsourcing company, at a price of $15 million, the largest this year.

According to Xiao Jun, executive vice-president of Genscript, the company got funding due to its "inherent strength in biotechnology research and its comprehensive service system".

"GenScript needs capital and mature management experience to help fulfill the goal of becoming a leading contract research outsourcing company," Xiao said.

Bio-pharmaceutical companies are those producing drugs using bio-technology. In early 2000, investors began to show interest in the sector, but the investment was not sizable given the limited scope of the medical market then.

"After China unveiled its healthcare reform, a huge potential for these products was unleashed," said Zheng.

Over the next few years, China's bio-pharmaceutical sector will continue to grow by 12 to 15 percent annually, and by 2010, the market will reach $100 billion.

With its strong talent pool, China is in a much better position to attract investment by international medical companies for R&D centers. In November, drug major Merck Serono and IBSA, a Switzerland-based bio-pharmaceutical company, announced plans to set up R&D centers in China.

Maurizio Dattilo, director of Strategic Marketing of IBSA, said: "China has a very strong scientific research team and employees to work for the R&D center."

This year, venture capital firms like International Data Group and SAIF are bolstering their teams and hiring more employees from hospitals and domestic bio-pharmaceutical companies.

"Both the companies are in negotiations for deals of over $10 million," said Zheng.

The joint venture (JV) of China-based LCD TV vendor TCL and Century Science & Technology Investment Corporation is headhunting talent from Taiwan's panel industry, according to sources in Taiwan.

TCL is recruiting people from panel makers including AU Optronics (AUO), Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT), the sources said.

Employees of Taiwan's panel companies may be more motivated to defect to China competitors now that the local LCD industry is consolidating. Innolux Display is merging with CMO and TPO Displays, leaving minor players, such as CPT, in a more difficult position, the sources from Taiwan's panel industry commented.

The China government plans to attract LCD panel makers to set up production plants in the country by providing subsidies, the sources claimed. Panel makers will only need to shoulder 10-15% of the total investment, while the government will cover about 30-40%, with the rest coming from outside investors, the sources added.