Recruiting in China

About 1,500 domestic companies have taken part in the fair, releasing more than 1,000 human talent and science projects. An estimated 8,000 new jobs will be introduced during the event.

Each year, the local government undertakes a survey to show the types of jobs that are most needed. This year, the city adopted for the first time a comparative study method to evaluate the city's talent resources and competence in the regional market by researching the job markets in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Wuxi, all located in the Yangtze River Delta economic zone.

The survey concluded there were 587 urgent job needs, covering five economic sectors. It also showed the market demand for innovative talent is still high, as most companies are used to adopting rather than inventing new products and technologies.

Seven job positions stand out as most urgent for the city — new-material engineers, car components engineers, senior architects, e-commerce managers, fashion designers, pharmaceutical experts and automation equipment experts.

The job fair places a premium on attracting those who have acquired a master's or a doctorate degree overseas. The local government will provide "mother care" services for such talents, offering them funds, welfare, houses, family settlement and healthcare.

Foreign job-seekers discuss work opportunities at the 4th Expat Job Fair Saturday.

Foreign job-seekers discuss work opportunities at the 4th Expat Job Fair Saturday.

With autumn just around the corner, recent university graduates are putting the carefree days of summer behind them and buckling down in their job search. For foreign job-seekers, Shanghai Expat, one of the city's most established online English-language communities, held its 4th Expat Job Fair Saturday, the second such event organized by the website this year.

Over 20 companies were in attendance at the fair to discuss open positions in fields such as education, healthcare, information technology, real estate, finance and catering. Over 1,300 job-seekers turned out as well, most of them overseas citizens. Many described the event as an invaluable opportunity where individuals and employers could meet face-to-face.

"Besides recruitment, companies can also take the opportunity to do branding promotion at the fair. For example, Fields China, an e-commerce company … is very popular among expats. The company not only recruits new staff at the job fair, they also promote their brand and business by providing free snacks," said Fan Yiting, brand manager from Ringier China, the media group that owns Shanghai Expat.

Some English education institutions saw the job fair as a chance to further their recruitment plans. One of the teaching companies present at the fair, EF Education First, will recruit 200 teachers or so between September and March.

"We do have multiple positions all across China, so we're looking forward to filling quite a few positions. Basically we're looking for teachers to work with kids and teens, or at our online center and face-to-face with adults. Our teachers definitely need to have some teaching experience, ideally two years," said Janice Hu, senior recruiter from EF Education First.

Hu added that the fair is also a good place to meet job-seekers who are already in China. "Lots of times we are dealing with people who are still overseas - maybe from the US or from the UK - and they are coming to China. But at this job fair, it's a nice chance to see who is already in the city and ready to start a new position," said Hu.

Some companies, on the other hand, were looking to recruit far fewer individuals.

"We have two open positions: one is for a sales adviser, the other is for an assistant," said Deanna Greer, senior consultant from Pacific Prime, a provider of insurance services. "The administrative job is more of something we do back at the office, so I'm here specifically looking for the sales position. I'm trying to fill that."

"We're looking for someone who obviously has a bachelor's degree … someone who has some time with other companies. We're looking for people who are really motivated, very ambitious and sales-driven," explained Greer, whose company attended the job fair organized by Shanghai Expat for the second time this year. Overall, Greer described her company's participation in the fair as a positive experience.

"Last year we hired two people from this job fair. They are still with the company today. They've been very successful," she explained.

Still, several employers explained that they regard the fair as merely a venue to connect with potential recruits. Most companies will conduct a more in-depth selection and review process after the fair to assess the candidate's qualifications.

"The people who want to apply with us have to be very international and bilingual," said Zhang Wenjing, an asset and tenancy management executive from Asia Pacific Properties. "They will not only face our clients from overseas, but also local people in Shanghai. And they need to have skills to negotiate with them."

Some employers also spoke about the impact new work visa policies were having on their recruitment plans.

"We want to recruit a few foreign managers for our restaurants," said Shi Hui, HR manager from Element Fresh. "Although there are many job-seekers here, we have to find some with catering industry experience. Because of tighter visa policies, now only people who have at least two years of full-time work experience in the same industry can apply for a work visa, so many candidates here are not qualified. This adds some difficulty to selecting candidates."

Harry Vuylsteke from Belgium has been in Shanghai for 13 months. He is looking into technical sales jobs. He has a master's degree in engineering as well as an MBA which he obtained in Shanghai.

"It would be great if there would be more companies," Vuylsteke remarked when asked about the employers who were present at the fair. "(The fair) definitely gives you an idea about possible positions in China. I've been looking for a job for three weeks. The main feedback I always get is you need to speak Putonghua, so it's really tough if you want to work in China." Nevertheless, Vuylsteke added that, "it is really a nice thing to see that there's a job fair for foreigners."

The competitive job market in Beijing has been hotter than the scorching summer this year, as it is not only proving to be tough for locals, but for foreign graduates seeking jobs as well. The market is further being heated up by new rules that allow foreign students to work part time while they study.

At a job fair held at the Beijing Friendship Hotel, foreign students are trying to land a job in China.

Last month, about 27 companies and institutions from China' eastern Zhejiang Province offered 142 vacancies for positions including engineers, salespeople and foreign managers, which attracted some 200 foreigners, mostly students.

"I've come here to get experience and hopefully get a job in China," 22-year-old Russian student Kristina Popova, from Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times.

It was Popova's first time at a job fair. She has been studying Chinese for five years and has worked as a translator and part-time English teacher. Despite her existing experience in China, she said she was a bit worried.

"The interview officers seem very professional. I think they might be looking for someone with more experience," she said.

There were over 320,000 international students studying at 690 universities across China in 2012, up 11 percent from 2011. That number is expected to reach 500,000 in 2016, according to the Department of International Cooperation and Exchange, under the Ministry of Education.

For many foreign students like Popova, China is seen as a land of possibilities. They might find jobs more easily than at home, with higher pay and a relatively more comfortable life. But not everything is easy. The path that leads to a job is often harder than they expect.

New policies

When it comes to working in China, one of the most important things that foreign students have to clarify with their Chinese employers is "will you get me a working visa?"

To get a working visa, foreigners must have at least two years of work experience in the relevant industry, which rules out most graduates. This means that foreign graduates have to go back home after graduation so they can apply for a job in China after getting the required experience.

Until last year, foreign students were not allowed to work part time or take on an internship while they were studying. Some believe these policies were the major reasons that stopped some foreign students from studying in China.

Employers face fines of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,600) for each foreigner illegally hired, and foreigners who work illegally may have their income confiscated and can face detention or deportation.

But there have been recent changes. Last year the government updated the current visa system and introduced some changes to the application process for a residence permit. For the first time, foreigners holding study residence permits were permitted to take part-time jobs or internships outside the campus as long as they obtain approval from their academic institutions and the entry and exit administrative authorities.

Lin Yaochen, a business assistant with Zhejiang-based King-Mazon Machinery Co. Ltd, who interviewed a dozen foreign students at the job fair in Beijing, told the Global Times that the company is willing to offer intern opportunities for inexperienced candidates.

"We are actually looking for the more experienced candidates, but the foreign students told us that their universities don't offer them internship opportunities," Lin said.

This is Lin's third time hiring foreign talent in Beijing. "You can see these young people come prepared. They dress up in suits and greet us politely," she said. "You can see they really take it seriously."

At the end of a whole day of interviews, Lin said they had given out two official job offers and three internship opportunities.

During the summer hiring period this year, the career centers of many universities have been busy introducing this new rule to foreign students, who are about to compete with 7 million fresh Chinese graduates.

"I believe foreign students have a better chance than Chinese students," Popova said.

However, education experts see it as an opportunity to promote culture. "I don't think the increasing number of foreign students brings competition to Chinese graduates," Zhu Dingjian, a representative of the standing committee of the All China Youth Federation, said while attending this year's National People's Congress in March.

"Friendship first, competition second," Zhu continued. "Foreign students can promote diplomatic friendship no matter whether they work in China or at home."

Ejaz Karim, 29, a Pakistani student studying at Tianjin Normal University, came all the way to Beijing for the job fair to gain experience.

Before coming to China, Karim had three years experiences working at a tour company at home. Now he wants to get into the hotel management industry.

"The economy in China is growing faster than in my country," Karim told the Global Times. "I know the job market is becoming more and more competitive as the number of foreigners increase, but I think I can stand out with my international background."

Foreigners with an international background, like Karim, are favored by many Chinese companies that are expanding their business networks overseas.

"We need more foreign professionals to push our products to go global," Ge Wei, an HR manager at the Zhejiang-based Shanhai Machinery Company, told the Global Times. "We do not mind hiring talent from developing countries as they can develop new markets for us."

The second thing that most foreign students are concerned about is payment. Generally foreign employees receive an income 2.5 times higher than Chinese employees in the same position.

But many inexperienced foreign students are satisfied with a lower starting salary. Popova said 5,000 yuan a month, with accommodation provided, would be acceptable.

"We can offer up to 40,000 yuan for a professional European engineer, plus an apartment," said Lin. "For salespeople, 20,000 yuan a month is acceptable."

New supervision and management

When China opened its doors to the world in 1980s, it was uncertain what kind of foreign talent it might attract. China's foreign population has risen as the economy has grown.

Not all Chinese companies are permitted to hire foreigners. Companies that have been open for less than two years cannot, but some of these companies bypass these rules by asking foreign employees to get other types of visas such as business or tourist visas.

Over the years, the country has developed means of cracking down on foreigners working illegally. In May 2012, Beijing launched a 100-day crackdown on "illegal foreigners," focusing on those working illegally in the city or who overstayed their visas. More than 60 models, mostly from Europe, were taken into custody for working without working visas last month in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

A year later, the authorities released new visa and residence permit regulations for foreigners, as well as new regulations about foreigners working in China.

The regulation strengthens supervision and management over foreigners, including allowing some institutions to verify their identities with exit-entry administration authorities when necessary, and making it necessary for foreign nationals to report to local entry and exit administrative authorities if they change jobs or house.

Some foreigners complain that the rules are changed too often. "Every year or 18 months, there are new rules. This can upset lots of foreigners because they don't know where they stand. It's inconsistent," Carlos Ottery, 31, a teacher at the Communication University of China, told the Global Times.

Ottery has been living in China for five years with a working visa. Every time he leaves China, he has to report to the local police station within 24 hours when he comes back. He thinks this is an onerous task.

"As the regulations are getting stricter, I am afraid some small companies might think twice before getting a work visa for foreign employees," an HR manager surnamed Zhu at a Beijing-based foreign company told the Global Times.

There have been some positive changes for foreign staff. In 2011, foreigners working in Chinese companies became eligible to participate in the national social insurance scheme, which covers pensions, medical, work-related injuries, unemployment and maternity insurance programs.

Now China is considering relaxing its "green card" policy. In the ten years since the system was launched in 2004, an average of just 248 foreigners obtained green cards annually, according to Xinhua.

But with or without a green card, staying in China is the priority for many foreign students. "I've been studying Chinese for five years, it would be a waste of time if I go home now," Popova said.

When asked what if she couldn't find a job, she considered the question for a moment. "Well, I would go for postgraduate study like Chinese students do," she said.

The continual smog affecting the country's major cities has created problems in terms of recruiting workers at foreign-invested companies as expatriates fear to put their own and their families' health at risk, industry insiders said.

The biggest issue is not so much investment or business decisions but recruitment, according to Roland Decorvet, chairman and chief executive officer of Nestle for the Greater China Region.

"We are really struggling to persuade people to move to Beijing - especially people with children," he told China Daily.

"We certainly don't want to increase our offices here. We'd rather increase them in places other than Beijing."

Decorvet said the company has made an effort to clean the offices' air and has given subsidies to employees for air cleaners at home.

But what employees worry about most is their children, said Decorvet, who as of May 1 is leaving Nestle to take a position at Mercy Ships, a charity organization.

The Swiss native will be succeeded by John Cheung, who is from Hong Kong.

For its part, Panasonic Corp of China said that it is paying a "hazard bonus for those foreign employees located in a challenging environment".

In negotiations this spring, revisions of salaries and labor conditions were discussed based on the air quality in China, the company's communication office said. But no decision was made.

The Financial Times reported on March 12 that the Japanese electronic company would offer air pollution compensation to their workers in China.

Panasonic is not the first to subsidize expats living in smog-affected cities, but it is the first to acknowledge that the allowance is specifically related to smog, according to Max Price, partner of Antal International China, a recruitment specialist based in the United Kingdom.

Price from Antal called it a dangerous precedent, which could be seen as putting a price on the health of individual workers.

Employers already are offering extra health insurance for foreign workers in China, with some companies "pollution-proofing" their buildings with air filters and window sealing, he said.

Such situations have become more prevalent. Some foreign professionals have decided that enough is enough and have asked for repatriation or an assignment away from China, according to Price.

"It is becoming more of a factor as time progresses. Polluted air is a major issue for foreign professionals, especially those looking to move to China with families," he said.

The pollution issue used to be offset by significantly higher salaries, but with the cost of living rising in expat areas, the salary benefit is not as attractive, Price noted.

Della Peng, human resources director for ManpowerGroup China, a workforce solution provider, said she is aware of the issues surrounding smog.

"Some enterprises could find it hard to recruit foreign employees if the air situation is not improved," said Peng.

Several managers have been transferred out from China due to the problem, she said.

But she said that, overall, the allure of working in China - one of the most crucial markets for international companies - still outweighs environmental issues, which are likely to be improved in the future.

In addition, she said, employers are making efforts to balance the costs and opportunities. For example, despite the concerns over smog, the number of inbound visitors last year has increased, she said.

Measures taken by foreign-invested companies to lure more expatriates include subsidies to those assigned to smog-affected regions or implementation of flexible working hours, she said. Many companies have moved expatriate professionals to less-polluted cities.

Relaxed regulation unlikely to create big short-term waves amid low stock market confidence: Analysts

Foreign investors can own more of a listed Chinese company after rules were relaxed to draw long-term overseas capital.

Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) and Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) can hold up to 30 percent of a company, under a guideline issued by the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

That had earlier been capped at 20 percent of total outstanding shares in a company. Foreign investors will soon also be able to invest in more financial products, including asset-backed securities and preferred shares, according to the authority.

Analysts said the move is meant to attract more long-term capital and boost China's equity market. It is in line with the Chinese leadership's plan to further open up the capital market.

QFII and RQFII are programs for licensed foreign investors to buy and sell yuan-denominated "A" shares on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

State Administration of Foreign Exchange data show that in February, China issued total quotas of $52.3 billion under the QFII program and 180.4 billion yuan ($29.32 billion) under the RQFII program, which allows investments using offshore yuan.

QFIIs increased holdings in more than 20 Shanghai-listed companies, according to their annual reports. The Bank of Ningbo Co Ltd and Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd were among companies that got the most QFII investment, Securities Times said on Thursday.

Analysts said foreign investors, favoring long-term value investment, are cautious about China's stock market, which has suffered bearish sentiment since 2008 and has been hurt by insider trading and price manipulation scandals.

"The overall amount of QFII and RQFII investment is still limited on the A-share market, so the impact of the new rules may be limited in lifting the market," said Zito Ji, an analyst with a mutual fund in Shanghai.

Investors cite corporate governance as a problem. Analysts say a lack of clarity about how Beijing will tax profits from QFII investments has also restrained some investors, Reuters said.

A weakening yuan and a pressured property industry is dragging investor confidence in China's stock market.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slumped by 1.4 percent to 1,993.48 on Thursday. And Shenzhen Component Index dived to a five-year low to 6,698.2.

China will recruit more top-notch professionals from abroad this year, said the country's human resources authorities on Wednesday.

It is hoped the high-level experts will fully engage in the country's development, said a statement from the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, after a national meeting of Party and government officials in charge of human resources.

China has operated a recruitment program, named "Plan 1,000", to attract overseas Chinese experts to build their careers in the country, since 2008.

So far 4,180 people have been recruited, 861 of them last year, the statement said.

These professionals, mostly scientists, have contributed to research in bioscience, plasma physics, nuclear technologies, space programs and satellites, it said.

But the government is also working on rules to end contracts with those who do not meet the needs of the country or fail to do their jobs, the statement added.

There has been a significant increase in the demand for foreign professionals to represent Chinese state-owned enterprises abroad as the nation gears up its global commercial activities and plans listings of its domestic companies on international bourses.

Robert Parkinson, founder and CEO of RMG Selection, an international recruitment firm with offices in the China, says that the job market started picking up in the second half of 2013, and ended the year with strong indications of good hiring activity continuing into 2014 on the back of growing optimism and confidence. One the areas that is seen robust recruiting is for foreigners who can represent Chinese interests abroad, and have specific knowledge of capital markets and listings regimes.

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RMG recently published the results of a survey of the China job market, done in conjunction with academics from the University of Nottingham. The research report, 2013 China Talent-flow Survey Report 2, tracked several trends such as the rate of ‘job-hopping’ in various industries, including financial services and professional services.

Of the 4,000 participants in the survey, more than a quarter had changed jobs in the previous 12 months compared to about a fifth in the previous survey period (end 2012/early 2013). Parkinson says candidates demand – and get – increases varying from 20% to 50% each time they move.

Most of the ‘job-hopping’ activity was concentrated among candidates who earned 50,000 RMB (over US$8,000 per month), while the age demographic most likely to change jobs was the so-called “millennials” – candidates born in the early 1990s – with 43% reporting they had changed employer in 2013.

“Many Chinese graduates will take pretty much any job they can find because the job market is so competitive. But once they have settled, and a better offer comes along, they will move quickly.”

RMG is seeing a flood of ethnic Chinese to China – either nationals who have worked abroad moving home, or people with Chinese ancestry and family connections wanting to seek opportunities in what Parkinson described as a very ‘hot’ market.

But Chinese companies were also seeking out foreigners who could represent their interests abroad – especially people with a strong understanding of and experience in international capital markets – skills that many Chinese nationals currently lack due to the country’s historically closed economy.

But for expats, finding a job in China and even looking for another role when already working in the country is challenging. Many channels available to finance professionals in other parts of the world, such as company recruitment portals, job boards, newspaper listings, and internet sites are practically non-existent.

One of the reasons, says Parkinson, is cultural. “Candidates, especially senior people, regard it as beneath them to look for jobs – they expect employers and headhunters to come to them.”

This supports one of the key findings for the research: that using headhunters is still the preferred channel for Chinese companies to find candidates. In the recent survey, the researchers found that the percentage of Chinese companies using headhunters had increased from 35% to 57% in the past year.

Moving your entire life to a foreign country can be hard. Finding housing, schools, medical care, not to mention a decent job, are just a few of the hurdles expatriates face.

Now China hopes to entice more skilled experts to its shores by making the task of relocating and securing a dream job a little bit easier.

The newly revamped Shanghai Employment Promotion Center has been modeled as a one-stop shop for foreign job seekers.

With more than 430 of the world’s top 500 companies now with offices in Shanghai, one step is to attract experts in short supply.

Shanghai is home to more than 160,000 expats. In 2013, they again ranked Shanghai as the most attractive city in China.

But while Shanghai may wow with its good looks, it’s the overall package that entices expats.

The Shanghai pilot free trade zone, launched on September 29, is China’s latest move in expanding economic dealings with the outside world.

Once upon a time, Chinese bureaucracies like the SEPC were little more than a rubber-stamp department, drowning applicants in mountains of paperwork.

But, at its base in Shanghai, staff here are now trying to woo workers from all corners of the world with the benefits of grabbing a job in the city.

Utilizing networks

Ding Feng, the center’s director, said they are the first port of call for companies seeking a recruitment permit, a requirement for hiring foreign workers in China.

“Foreign job-seekers could get work visas with the recruitment permit and then apply for a foreigner employment permit,”Ding said.

Documents here are in English, allowing foreigners with little knowledge of Chinese to register for employment or extend their visa.

“This is my first time and so far it seems to be very efficient,”one American job seeker said.“The staff are very helpful.”

Beyond the paperwork, the center has now extended its scope to helping expats utilize educational, medical and social networks.

It’s all part of the government’s recent endeavor to make their departments more service-oriented. Foreign employees, who are referred to as“foreign experts”in China, are among the target population of such services.

Rose Oliver from Britain is one of them. The 49-year-old works as a professor at Shanghai University.

“I found it to be more than just a bureaucratic-like agency,”Oliver said.

“It is more than an office that facilitates visas. They are actually concerned with expats’working lives, their lifestyles and the quality of life they have in China.”

Oliver said it’s the center’s personal touch that has helped her to“have real exposure to Chinese culture.”

This includes the cultural events run by the center that provide foreign experts with knowledge about living in China.

According to Huang Weimao, deputy director of the Shanghai Foreign Experts Affairs Bureau, streamlining all-important social security services is another vital role. The SEPC is under the bureau’s jurisdiction.

“We have close contact with expats, to give them help with obtaining child education, medical care and even housing,”Huang said.

The help is appreciated by expats like Oliver.“They provide a lot of security.”

“When we have problems, I contact Huang. We don’t necessarily have daily contact. But at least there is the knowledge that they are there if you need them,”Oliver said.

Health care concerns

Besides basic medical insurance, the bureau has coordinated with a state-owned company to offer tailored medical services for expats.

“Foreigners tend to have higher requirements,”Huang said.

The offerings of assistance have been expanded as part of the Expats Residence Law. The law, which took effect on July 1, grants foreign workers with a bachelor degree or above, equal access to investment, government jobs, schooling, and an all-important driver’s license.

Russian biologist Philip Khaytovich works in a joint scientific research center established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Germany’s Max Planck Society.

“Before it was not clear what to do with us, because there was no legal framework to deal with foreigners, like how to provide social insurance,”Khaytovich said.“Now it has all changed.”

Khaytovich is part of China’s“1,000 Foreign Talents”program used to recruit scientists from around the world.

“I was fortunate to get into the talent program, as it provides generous support for our work. I think this can make China a very attractive place for research.”

The bureau is responsible for the program’s talent recruitment. With the top 500 companies on the look-out for executives and managerial experts, the bureau is right there helping.

Huang is especially seeking experts in the ship building, automobile, electro-mechanics and new materials industries.

Long-term visa

As part of luring and securing expat workers, China has plans to introduce a long-term visa. It will replace the working visa, which must be renewed annually.

“A lot of expats are willing to stay for a long time,”said Oliver.“They aren’t just coming for a year or two. They are coming to make a life here.”

Huang also just put another improvement in the pipeline.

“Foreign experts require a flexible visa policy," Huang said.“The creation of the Shanghai free trade zone provides a chance for change.”

Khaytovich, 40, said he has already considered retiring in China.

The new residence law for expats allows foreigners to collect a pension, but Huang still admits new provisions may take some fine tuning.

How to apply for a foreigner employment permit

Requirements:

1. Applicants should be in good health with no infectious diseases such as leprosy, AIDS, STDs or pulmonary tuberculosis. They should also have no other disease according to specific job requirements.

2. An assured work unit.

3. Professional skills, proper educational degrees and over two years of work experience related to the job.

4. No criminal record.

5. Valid passport or other international travel identification that can substitute.

6. Men between 18 and 60 years old and women between 18 and 55, under common situations.

7. Other requirements required by laws and regulations.

Application materials:

1. An application form.

2. Copies of valid business licence or other legal registration certificates and organization code. Foreign enterprises should also provide a copy of the approval certificate.

3. The applicant’s resume including the highest educational degree and complete experience. The resume should be printed in Chinese with the employer’s seal.

4. Related certificates of applicant’s skills (certificates should be issued by related organizations or by the applicant’s former employers.)

5. Copy of related educational diploma to the job in China.

6. Copy of the applicant’s valid passport.

7. Other materials required by issuing authorities.

Where to submit

? Shanghai Employment Promotion Center

Address: 4F, 77 Meiyuan Road

Phone: 12333 or 3251-1585

Opening hours:

9am to 11:30am and 1:30pm to 5pm from Monday to Thursday

9am to 11:30am and 1:30pm to 3:30pm on Friday

Closed at weekend.

? Foreigners in Huangpu, Xuhui, Jing’an, Changning, Jiading and Putuo districts and the Pudong New Area can go to district employment promotion centers to apply for the permit. Foreigners in other districts must go to the Shanghai Employment Promotion Center.

Huangpu: 525 Nanchezhan Road

Xuhui: 1F, 9118 Humin Road

Jing’an: Counter 5, 2F, 241 Wuning Road S.

Pudong: 3995 Pudong Road S.

Changning: 1F, 517 Wuyi Road

Jiading: 1F, 119 Jiajian Road

Putuo: 1F, 1036 Wuning Road

Bringing in international students is a bonanza or provinces... so where is Manitoba?

CHENGDU, China -- Sandy Prentice is the international program administrator for the Kootenay Lake School Division. The name rang no bells for me. It helped, however, when Sandy explained Kootenay Lake is the school division that serves Nelson, a town of 8,000 in southwestern British Columbia.

What on earth are you doing here? I asked.

"What everybody else is doing," she responded. "I'm recruiting students."

We were in a great exhibition hall at the impressive Shangri-la Hotel, built on park-like grounds at the forks of the Jin and Funan rivers in downtown Chengdu. The hall was filled with neat rows of booths, like streets along which thousands of students, many with their parents, window-shopped for an "international" school where they might study in English.

The largest "district" in this booth city was occupied by American institutions, but there were strong representations from the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Ireland and on and on.

Canada occupied a couple of blocks, where, not surprisingly, B.C. and Ontario had the most storefronts. Quebec was there, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan... but not Manitoba.

They were all recruiting students, evidence not so much of a desire to spread "international" know-how, but of the vast amounts of money spreading know-how can earn.

"International education brings into B.C. about $2.1 billion a year," Colin Doerr, a director with the B.C. Council for International Education. "It's right up there with coal development."

B.C. attracts about 23,000 students a year, about one-quarter of the 80,000 international students who arrive in Canada annually. Extrapolating from B.C.'s experience, that makes the sector worth more than $8 billion a year to the Canadian economy.

Not all of those students arrive from China, although a great many of them do.

Sending children abroad to be educated has long been the practice for China's elites. But its popularity is growing as the middle class grows.
Recent Chinese government data indicate 20 per cent of Chinese families are middle-class, meaning 30 per cent of income is available for uses other than necessities. Given China's one-child policy (changed to two-child at the Communist party's recent third plenum) and a culture of saving, it means there are tens of millions of families that can afford to send their child abroad, and they are doing so in ever-greater numbers, and at ever-younger ages.

"Studying abroad is very popular," Ivy Zhang, my Canadian-educated translator said. "People realize that English is a very strong skill, even if you work in China."

Which brings us back to Sandy Prentice, an exemplar if ever there was of how even the smallest Canadian jurisdictions can benefit from reaching out to China, and in particular to the huge, largely untapped second-tier markets such as that offered by Winnipeg's sister city, Chengdu, population 14 million.

Prentice said Nelson realized some time ago there were benefits for both sides in recruiting international students, especially in recent times when Chinese families saw additional benefits in sending their children abroad at high school (and even younger) ages to prepare for university entrance.

Kootenay Lake today teaches 150 foreign students from 11 countries, the biggest contingent from Germany (for whom skiing is a big attraction) followed by Korea, Brazil and China.

Each student earns the school division $12,000 in tuition, a total of about $1.8 million a year, a lot of money for a division that serves a total population of 20,000 -- the 8,000 residents of Nelson and 12,000 more in its catchment.

Then there are economic spinoffs in payments to host families and to the wider B.C. economy as a result of family visits, usually in Vancouver during school breaks. Often families will buy a second residence in Vancouver to facilitate visits over periods that can span six years and more (three high school years and at least three years of postsecondary study).

Prentice explained Nelson is a "white-bread valley" that has few connections with the increasingly international tenor of globalization.

Part of the foster-parent program is designed to change that, if only a little, by requiring families to prepare Chinese meals and share Chinese entertainments. Relationships between foster and Chinese families often become permanent, as do bonds between students and "Mama Bears and Papa Bears."

Colin Doerr, of the B.C. council, said the one-to-one relationships 80,000 international students a year forge over their time in Canada are perhaps the most significant enduring benefit of international education programs... for both sides.
"They provide the single most important partnerships of all that we do," he said.

In the swirl of bodies, I was often stopped and questioned by students, who assumed because of my age and white beard, I must be a professor. Others would stop me for no other reason than to chat in English. One young man followed me for a time eavesdropping on my conversations. "I find it very interesting to listen to what you say," he explained.

At the Saskatchewan booth, we stopped an older woman, thinking she might be considering a career change, but found instead she was an "auntie" picking up brochures for a niece whose mother was at work and could not attend.

The involvement of extended family in educational aspirations is common in China, where traditional family fealty is now more narrowly focused.

The auntie said she was instructed to collect information about Saskatchewan because "it is safe and has clean air."
It was a recurring theme. Hosa, a strapping 6-2 Grade 12 student accompanied by his much shorter parents, said he was looking at Canada because of its "harmony."

His parents, however, were less philosophical.

"Definitely it will be Canada," his father said. "It is a good country with good air quality."

"Saskatchewan has become pretty aggressive about recruitment," said Ian Morrison, a recruiter for the Saskatchewan Institute for Applied Science and Technology. "Saskatchewan's population has grown 10 per cent in the last five years and will grow by 10 per cent again in the next five years, mostly from Asia. Traditionally, we never pursued them (international students) but now we have to. We need them."

He said the Moose Jaw institute has about 350 students from China and is seeking more.

"Most of them are using us for immigration purposes," Morrison said.

For the most part, Chinese students enrol in programs that also earn university credits. After three years, they graduate and are eligible for permanent resident status, which allows them to work. It also makes them eligible for resident tuition fees, which are about one-third of the $10,000 to $15,000 they had been spending as international students.

If all goes well from Saskatchewan's point of view, the students will remain in the province and became highly trained members of the workforce.

We stopped an intense-looking young woman with large, round owl glasses and short pigtails tied above her ears, her clothing and Ugg boots showing a meticulous fashion sense.

Rebecca said she was a Christian and had chosen her name from the Bible.

I confess an inability to guess women's ages in China, perhaps because they are, for the most part, petite.

I asked her if she was looking for a school to which she might go after graduating from high school.

"I am a master's student in linguistics and I'm looking for a school to purse a doctorate," she replied.

Ah, yes, of course.

Rebecca said she was looking for a school in Canada because "I have lots of friends there."

Her English was flawless, but her accent, like so many accents in China where English teachers might be from anywhere in the global village -- from England to India -- was impossible to describe.

She said, however, that the accent of the country in which she studied mattered -- she wants to sound mid-Atlantic.
I asked if she planned to remain in Canada, return to China, or go elsewhere.

"Maybe, it depends," she said.

Which struck me as an extraordinary thing to say. That a young Chinese woman in Chengdu confidently could contemplate a career path that would take her anywhere in the world of her choosing struck me as evidence of how quickly China has changed.

But when I said so, she responded instantly.

"It has always been this way for some people," she said. "Now there are just more of them."

Huawei Technologies Co., which is struggling to break out of the mold of a Chinese company, is recruiting more Western executives and rolling out a long-term incentive program to attract foreign workers.

The moves come as the Shenzhen-based company expands aggressively overseas and tries to remake itself into a global brand. Huawei, which generates two-thirds of its revenue outside China, is now the world's second-largest supplier of telecommunications-network equipment after industry leader Ericsson. ERIC-B.SK -0.30%

Yet Huawei's senior executives are predominantly Chinese, and only about one-quarter of its 150,000 employees are non-Chinese nationals.

Huawei's fast growth in the telecom-equipment market has drawn criticism in the West.

A U.S. congressional report last year labeled the company a security threat and questioned whether it has close ties to the Chinese government. Similar concerns have been raised in Australia and the U.K. Huawei has denied the allegations.

To attract workers in India, where Huawei hires many engineers for its local research-and-development facility, the company earlier this year introduced an employee-benefit program modeled after its China share-ownership program. That program lets Chinese workers buy a stake in the company and profit when Huawei does well.

Huawei plans to roll out this benefit to other countries, said spokesman Roland Sladek. He declined to elaborate.

The move is significant because Huawei has called its Chinese share-ownership program a driver of the company's success. About 74,000 of the 110,000 Chinese nationals employed at Huawei are shareholders.

In India, Huawei employees become eligible after two years. But unlike its China program, overseas employees can't actually own a stake in the company.

Still, the program is likely to allow the company to "create a strong loyalty among the best talent" as it expands overseas, said Mr. Sladek, who joined Huawei last year from ST-Ericsson, a European joint venture of Ericsson and semiconductor-manufacturer STMicroelectronics STM +0.89% NV.

If Huawei is seen as an international firm, this could ease security concerns and give it greater access to local markets, said Sandy Shen, a Gartner Inc. research director based in Shanghai. "It's very important that they put on the face of a global company when they go into international markets."

Huawei's efforts to transform itself into a global company are becoming apparent at its Shenzhen headquarters.

Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese and Westerners are among the 30,000 employees who work on the nearly square-mile campus. The campus offers Western restaurants serving steak, and an Indian and halal canteen with freshly made chapati flat breads.

CT Johnson, a 45-year-old U.S. finance expert, left Ericsson last year to be Huawei's corporate controller. Mr. Johnson said he had qualms about taking the job, questioning whether "they might be hiring me as a Western guy just for show and without real responsibility." But, he said, those concerns turned out to be unfounded as he was granted access to Huawei's financial statements and details of its operations. Mr. Johnson has since changed jobs within the company, leading a division that negotiates sales contracts with customers.Still, all of Huawei's 13 board directors are Chinese, raising questions about how much impact a handful of foreign executives will have.

Huawei has also hired a number of other high-profile Western executives to diversify its management team, including Colin Giles, a former Nokia Corp. executive from Australia, and John Suffolk, formerly the U.K. government's chief information officer.

Other Chinese technology companies are taking similar steps. Lenovo Group Ltd. 0992.HK +1.77% , which bought International Business Machines Corp.'s personal-computer business in 2005, has hired more executives and managers from Western competitors in recent years.

Lenovo overtook Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ +0.24% as the world's biggest PC maker this year.

Western executives are becoming increasingly receptive to Chinese companies, said Bhavya Sehgal, head of Asian-Pacific research for Frontier Strategy Group, as these companies expand and snap up assets around the world.

Huawei also has more opportunities to recruit executives, in part because some Western rivals have been struggling and cutting jobs, said Canalys analyst Matthew Ball.

In October, Alcatel-Lucent ALU.FR +0.77% of France said it would reduce its workforce by roughly 15%. In July, Huawei said its revenue for the first half of the year rose 11% from a year earlier to 113.8 billion yuan ($18.7 billion).

Mr. Johnson said he is adjusting to an "indirect" manner of communication at a Chinese company. In one of his first projects for Huawei, Mr. Johnson forged ahead with a new method of compiling financial reports, not understanding that colleagues' questions were really an objection.

"At Western companies, I would expect my subordinates to challenge me, in a direct but respectful way," Mr. Johnson said. "At Huawei, and I suspect in most Chinese companies, that's the same as cursing."

The project was later scrapped.

"Chinese companies are giving control, but the question is whether they give all the independence required for Western executives to be successful," said Mr. Sehgal.

Wen Xuejun's budding dream in the United States blossomed in China.

After staying in the US for 16 years, and holding an endowed chair professorship at Virginia Commonwealth University, Wen returned to China and set up Ryan Nanomedicine Co Ltd in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province.

"I have an ambition to transfer my achievements in the lab into useful medical products, and I chose to realize this ambition in China, after careful consideration,"said Wen, who now serves as the company's president.

Wen is one of dozens of people who took part in the latest 1,000 Plan Entrepreneurship Competition in Suzhou. The contest is especially designed for experienced entrepreneurs who have an overseas background.

It's part of a project known as the One Thousand Talent Plan, which has been administered by the central government since 2008.

The program is China's most ambitious specialist recruitment program in recent years. It aims to attract top international specialists in fields such as science and technology, finance and corporate management to start companies in China.

For decades, going overseas for further study was a relatively rare opportunity, and a highly desirable move for bright and ambitious people. Many of them put down roots abroad, obtaining permanent residence and building a life in a new country.

But studying abroad is becoming easier for ordinary people, and more graduates — as well as established professionals — are thinking of coming back to China, with its fast-growing economy that has become the world's second largest.

For Wen, who had an established career and a family in the US, the biggest attraction of China was strong financial support.

After winning the championship, he received 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) in strategic funding from venture capital investors, as well as 300,000 yuan in prize money.

Wen's lab in the US mastered a core technology to make collagen-coated medical catheters, which are more resistant to bacteria and cost less.

But the cost of commercializing the technology in the US would have been too high, Wen said.

The US Food and Drug Administration certification process is an expensive and complicated procedure, and hiring a team for the project would have cost at least 1 million yuan a year.

"However, I am much more familiar with the certification process in China, although the paperwork is much more time-consuming. What's more, human resources are cheaper,"Wen said.

Poon Hak Fei had a similar experience. He joined Nanosolar in Silicon Valley in California after getting his doctorate in chemical engineering at Princeton University. He then co-founded an energy storage solution startup, but he still chose to set up his first wholly owned company in Suzhou.

"To be fair, the working and living environment is very nice in the States, as well as the pay. But I do not want to miss the market opportunities in China,"he said.

Poon set up a company to make conductive nanofilm last January, with $2.2 million in strategic investment from Northern Light Venture Capital. He said he expects the company to be profitable by the end of 2013.

"The logic is to make world-class products at a lower cost in China. Meanwhile, the local government is quite efficient, and the managers from the venture capital company are very helpful,"he added. He added that a cluster of nanotechnology companies has formed in the Yangtze River Delta region, which is another plus.

Talk about China losing its labor advantage is widespread these days. According to a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group, "Made in America, Again”, the cost advantage China has over the US is shrinking fast.

"Within five years, rising Chinese wages, higher US productivity, a weaker dollar, and other factors will virtually close the cost gap between the US and China for many goods consumed in North America,"the report said.

There are also reports of manufacturer such as vehicle producers moving back to the US from China.

But people like Poon believe that for technology-intensive sectors, China still has its advantages.

"China has very smart technicians and skilled workers. They are very willing to learn, very good at solving problems. They just lack some systematic training, but they cost half as much as their US peers,"he said.

So it's possible that some blue-collar industries formerly outsourced to China will leave, but skill-intensive ones won't, he added.

Government funds earmarked for universities and research-and-development centers were used over the past couple of decades to cultivate the first wave of entrepreneurs in China.

Banks, local governments with technology zones and industrial parks later became technology investors.

Today, the rise of China's venture capital sector is supporting the entrepreneurial environment.

Media reports have said that VC investment in China peaked at $6.3 billion with 362 deals in 2011.

VCs are still keen on the Chinese market, although they've become more cautious because of a freeze on initial public offerings since late 2012, which blocked a common exit mechanism.

"You've got to go to the early stage to find good opportunities,"said Deng Feng, founder and managing director of Northern Light.

"In recent years, venture capitalists were like hunter-gatherers picking the low-hanging fruit.

"Now, we have to become peasants who labor together with the enterprises that we've invested in, to make a profit,"he said.

But that also means more opportunities for people with "hard"technology such as Wen and Poon to attract capital for their innovations.

"China has a solid base in its manufacturing industry. It's very easy to combine the hard technology and undertake mass production here,"Deng said.

Deng himself is a "returnee executive”, who was born and grew up in China. He studied and worked in the US before returning to China and setting up his VC firm in 2005. Northern Light focuses on early-stage, technology-enabled business opportunities.

"Talented returnees are displaying explosive creativity and energy in China, and becoming fresh troops in leading China's strategic emerging industries,"a central government said.

The report said that revenue generated by enterprises under the One Thousand Talent Plan has reached 63.2 billion yuan, generating profits and tax revenues of 3.5 billion yuan.

Even beyond this program, more young Chinese are returning home to find economic oppotunities.

"It is easier to achieve fast growth for companies in China due to the thriving economy. I plan to go back and start up my own business, although I am reluctant to leave the great technology atmosphere in the US,"said Wang Pu, 32, who works as an engineer for Google Inc in the US.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said 272,900 overseas students came back to China in 2012, up 46 percent from the previous year.

Although many returned students complain that it's hard for them to find jobs, high-end talent is in great demand everywhere in China. Besides the One Thousand Talent Plan, local governments at all levels are wooing well-educated specialists.

For example, Pudong New Area in Shanghai released a five-year plan late last year under which it earmarked 300 million yuan to attract world-class talent in finance, shipping and other strategic emerging industries.

Some say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s the case, Canadian immigration officials should be flattered.

According to Chinese news media, China will be introducing a list of skills currently in demand in the country, in order to aid its recruitment of foreign talent.

A report in the China Daily in late September quoted an unnamed foreign affairs official saying Beijing is “identifying shortages in the domestic labour market” to “learn what types of workers (domestic firms) felt are hard to find.”

The wording strikes an uncanny resemblance to what Canadian immigration minister Chris Alexander said in Vancouver just two weeks ago — that the federal government, through its Expression of Interest program, is looking to fill areas where there is specific labour needs with foreign talent.

Also shared by Beijing’s announcement and Alexander’s speech was a call to private enterprise to help the central governments compile the most up-to-date list possible, so the foreign talent being brought into the country can immediately integrate and contribute.

Coincidence? More than likely. But the fact that a major power in global politics is now taking a similar model as Canada in identifying and addressing domestic talent deficiencies demonstrates both the effectiveness of the Canadian system and the fierce competition for the best and the brightest around the world.

Beijing’s announcement came two years after the city of Shanghai began publishing its own oversea recruitment list, according to China Daily. The list was modest in size — 72 positions that nine state-owned enterprises were looking to fill.

The national skills list is to be published next year, although no other details, such as the number of positions needing to be filled, have been released. It is unlikely that the numbers would be as large as the Canadian program — Beijing specified “foreign recruitment,” not “immigration,” as the key process of gaining talent, indicating they are looking to fill only the top echelon of the labour market.

Still, with China looking for talents in the management, technology and science fields, and the market’s access to a region where the two biggest economies (China and Japan) are both on the rise this year (not to mention the growing importance of the Southeast Asian markets, led by the big six of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines), the attractiveness of the opportunities for foreign workers speaks for itself.

In some places closer to China, the draw of Beijing is already rivalling that of the United States. The South Korean government released data last week that 62,855 Korean students studied in China in 2012, almost quadruple the number (16,372) recorded in 2001.

The data also shows, however, that North America — both the U.S. and Canada — continue to be extremely popular, as well. Seoul’s figures put the Korean student population in the United States at 73,351, the most of any nation around the world. Canada, meanwhile, sits third at 20,658, followed by Japan and Australia.

What this means is that, while Canada may be faced with other countries competing for the same foreign talents, it still has an inherent attractiveness to immigrants and potential labour. The key, however, is not to become complacent — because, as it can be seen above, the competition is fierce.

China is to publish a list of work skills most in demand to aid recruitment from overseas, a top official in charge of foreign affairs has revealed.

Speaking ahead of the 2013 Friendship Award ceremony on Saturday, Liu Yanguo, deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, said his authority is identifying shortages in the domestic labor market.

"We’ll do research with human resource departments and employers to learn what types of workers they feel are hard to find,” he told China Daily.

The list is scheduled for release next year, and will be updated to keep pace with changes in market demand.

How and where it will be published, as well as other details, are still under discussion, Liu added.

Wang Huiyao, director-general of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing think tank, welcomed the move.

"It’s important to have such a list. It can improve the effect of recruitment from abroad,” he said.

By listening to employers’ demands, he said, authorities will be able to pinpoint industries with long-term skill shortages and introduce favorable policies.

Shanghai began publishing a recruitment list for overseas talent in 2011. On the list, nine State-owned enterprises, including Shanghai Electric, provide 72 job vacancies that they plan to fill, with salaries up to 800,000 yuan ($131,000).

China needs foreign talent from all walks of life, especially people with expertise in management, technology and science, Liu said.

He added that China’s efforts to recognize and reward people who have made tremendous contributions to China’s development and bilateral friendship is equally important in attracting high-end talent.

Fifty foreign experts received the Friendship Award this year. The prize is the highest accolade given to foreign citizens by the Chinese government.

Liu said all winners are distinctive foreign experts working in China.

Many recipients this year are leading scientists and scholars, including Israeli biologist Aharon Ciechanover, the 2004 Nobel laureate in chemistry, who is director of Nanjing University’s Institute of Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences.

"Thirty years ago, most foreign experts came to help China solve technological problems, but now China also enables foreign experts to realize their dream and boost their career development,” Liu said.

Noticeably, four recipients, including Ravi Shankar Narasimhan, a senior editor at China Daily, were recognized for efforts in “helping China better tell its stories to the outside world”, Liu said.

"Many foreigners, after they came to China, realized China was not a rising monster but a fascinating country,” Liu said. “We appreciate foreign experts’ efforts can help the outside world better understand China.”

High-calibre overseas talents will benefit from a faster visa application process, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) on Tuesday.

The ministry said in a circular that various government organs and state-owned enterprises should submit details of their overseas talent introduction programs to the ministry or the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA).

These departments can apply for visas and residency permits via a priority procedure for talented people as well as their families.

Meanwhile, high-level overseas talents working in the country outside these programs will also enjoy a faster application process if they meet various conditions, said the circular.

The circular was jointly released by the MHRSS, the ministries of public security and foreign affairs, the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the SAFEA.

"Many of my classmates and I want to stay in China after graduation because of its fast economic development; and also because we have Chinese origins, and our 'roots' are here", Yuan Yirui, a Chinese Argentinian student from Tsinghua University told China News service.

Despite this year being labeled as "the hardest year" to find a job due to the growth of graduates and a decline in the number of job postings, Yuan still decided to stay in China after graduation. "I've got used to living here and I just cannot cut my emotional ties with China," Yuan said.

Yuan has been studying in Beijing for five years and speaks Spanish, English and Chinese.

"Most of the overseas students speak several languages. We are more competent when finding a job no matter whether it is in China or back in our own countries," Yuan said.

Unlike Yuan Yirui, Chinese Malaysian student Li Meici from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics is preparing to go back to her country.

"I was offered a part-time job in a bakery, but the company took away the offer after finding out that I'm a Malaysian," Li said.

After that, Li tried several other companies, but all of them rejected recruiting her because she is not a Chinese national.

Another Chinese Malaysian student Cai Huichuan, who studied in Peking University, experienced the same obstacle during her job hunting.

Statistics show that there were 328,330 overseas students in China in 2012. Now those who are going to graduate this year are in the same situation as the local students - facing the hardest year to get a job.

The overseas students who decide to stay in Beijing are more likely to work in foreign companies, especially the Beijing branch offices of their own countries' companies, China News Service reported.

Many companies in China are not allowed to recruit foreigners according to local regulations. Even those having qualifications may not choose to hire them for a number of reasons, given the complicated situation this year.

Foreign graduates of Chinese origin may prefer to stay in China, but they will have to face various obstacles as Li Meici and Cai Huichuan have discovered.

New regulations for employing foreigners in China do not identify eligibility criteria for high-level and in-demand professional talent, says global law firm Baker McKenzie.

New proposals to China’s Entry and Exit Control Law, published last week, take effect on 1 July and come after February’s announcement of new laws that raise questions over the future of agency work in the country.

In draft form, the laws do not “identify the eligibility criteria” for a new ‘R’ visa, which will be introduced for high-level personnel and professionals in short supply in the country, Baker McKenzie says.

The current ‘F’ visa for business use will be moved to a new ‘M’ category.

The new laws will also reinforce the illegality of working without a valid employment and residence permit, and redefining the rules for students interning in the country.

As the school year concludes in China, many students are ecstatic for the summer break and excited for the bigger and better things they will see in September when they enter the next grade. Their foreign teachers from the West however, will most likely not enjoy the same sense of achievement felt from moving into a higher position. Lately, expatriates holding entry-level positions in China, such as English teachers and interns as well as recent graduates, are finding it increasingly difficult to find fulfilling work.

Amid massive youth unemployment in the West, China once seemed like a land of opportunity for young Westerners to succeed and achieve their dreams faster than they would have back home.

The startling success of the Chinese Chinese economy does not translate however to immediate opportunities for every foreigner considering a move to China. At least, not any more. Increasingly, simply being from a rich, English speaking country is not viewed as a qualification in and of itself.

Even those with engineering degrees, which are known to grab high paying positions in the West, are still facing difficulties securing similar work in China. Take these two examples, who spoke of their difficulties finding work to the New York Times:

Brett Edman, who moved to Beijing in February after studying Chinese and engineering in Australia, said he approached Himin and had no luck. “I can understand if they are looking for specific things, but they didn’t seem interested in talking to me anyway,” Mr. Edman, 25, said. “Even my major is directly related to their business, so that was a bit surprising.”

Max Scholl, 23, who studied environmental engineering at the University of Vermont, has been in China for 10 months teaching English at a kindergarten. His salary is 10,000 renminbi, or $1,600, a month. Most of that is sent home to pay off student loans, and he is concerned that he cannot find employment in his chosen field. “It is a little frightening, the situation I am in,” he said.

The competitiveness of the Chinese job market is governed not by amount of education but rather something else. The reason for the woes of foreigners is simple: their foreignness. They must not only compete with the other 600,000 expatriates in China, but of course also with the young and educated Chinese population. Obviously locals hold a significant advantage, in terms of language, familiarity and experience in China. According to the New York Times Chinese students who have gone abroad to study are the greatest competition for foreigners in China, they are the "more qualified applicants on the market" in part due to their "overseas university degrees, multiple languages and an international outlook."

This return of students who studied abroad to China is an exponentially growing trend that will continue to exacerbate competition for expatriates. According to The Guardian:

(Foreginers) now have to contend with around 285,000 Chinese students who have been sent overseas to study, up from 24,000 in 1995, according to EIC Group China, an educational services provider. Locals have high expectations when returning to their home country after a stint abroad - and debts to pay off. Most come back with English which is far better than any foreigner's Mandarin.”

Exacerbating this trend, how Chinese society views foreigners is also experiencing great change. Their presence is no longer thought of as a new and exciting concept and the special status that foreigners once received simply by dint of being foreign is diminishing (as it should do). Tea Leaf Nation explains:

First off, they are less and less a novelty. Once upon a time, they were asked to pose for photos wherever they went. While this is still true in most areas, they are now hardly given a second glance in the trendier areas of big cities. With more of them around, expats have been demystified - and more opportunities for interaction have perhaps led local Chinese to a startling revelation: that many foreigners are poor students, or are struggling to make ends meet, while China’s middle class is only growing more and more wealthy.

With all of this, perhaps many young and educated expatriates will leave the country disillusioned with their personal "Chinese Dream", disappointed that it wasn't easy to jump right into a high paying job. This sort of entitlement and indignation is a trait pervasive among graduates in my home country of Canada, and it certainly isn't doing anyone any favours in China. Being a successful expatriate in China has become more difficult, but it is by no means impossible. China and the West only become more interlinked every year, and qualified individuals will always be needed to help maintain and grow this bond. China has done its part by improving rapidly over the past 30 years, now it just wants its foreign guests to keep up the pace.

Our judiciary remains fiercely independent," Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok said at a luncheon address in London last week. "We uphold the rule of law and Hong Kong people enjoy a wide range of rights and freedoms."

An independent judiciary is one of Hong Kong's most positive attributes, especially now that the civil service's image is somewhat tarnished. However, while the quality of judges remains high, there is a troubling shortage of suitable candidates who can move up to the bench.

One reason is that Hong Kong did not develop legal education until very late. The Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese produced its first medical graduates in 1892 but the first law graduates from the University of Hong Kong did not appear until 80 years later, in 1972. Because of that, Hong Kong's first local judges were all British-trained. Even then, there were disincentives to serve as judges under the colonial system.

Simon Li Fook-sean, who died recently, was the first Chinese person to serve as a high court judge in 1971 and retired in 1987 when he was vice-president of the Court of Appeal. Throughout this period, he complained bitterly about the discriminatory treatment accorded local judges.

In those days, however, Hong Kong could draw on other sources for legal and administrative talent - not just from Britain but from its colonies around the world. Those expatriate judges served Hong Kong well but many are now retired or close to retirement.

None of the original judges on the Court of Final Appeal in 1997 was locally trained. Currently, only one - Patrick Chan Siu-oi - graduated from the University of Hong Kong, but he is retiring in October and will be replaced by another British-trained jurist, Joseph Fok.

Fortunately, China was pragmatic when it enacted the Basic Law. That document stipulates that only the chief justice of the Court of Final Appeal and the chief judge of the High Court must be Chinese nationals. Other judges - and other legal personnel - can be recruited overseas.

Since 1997, there has been a perhaps understandable reluctance to recruit overseas judges. But Hong Kong has no choice if it is to maintain its high standards. The city itself simply does not have the depth and breadth of legal talent.

Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li has acknowledged the problem and said: "So far as I'm concerned, it is better to leave a position vacant than to get people who are not qualified or are not the right people." Of course, positions cannot be left open indefinitely. Already, the waiting time for both civil and criminal cases has lengthened beyond prescribed targets.

Overseas judges are at a disadvantage in not knowing the Chinese language and the local culture. But until Hong Kong can fill the void - by training top legal minds and perhaps also by widening the pool to include more solicitors and academics - there may well be a need to recruit judges from overseas.

Exits of top foreign managers amid health fears predicted to rise in future

Whitney Foard Small loved China and her job as a regional director of communications for a top automaker. But after air pollution led to several stays in hospital and finally a written warning from her doctor telling her she needed to leave the country, she packed up and moved to Thailand.

In doing so, the Ford Motor Co. executive became another expatriate to leave China because of its notoriously bad air. Other top executives whose careers would be boosted by a stint in the world’s second-largest economy and most populous consumer market are put off when considering the move.

Executive recruitment firms say it is becoming harder to attract top talent to China — both expats and Chinese nationals educated abroad. The European Chamber of Commerce in China says foreign managers leave for many different reasons, but that pollution is almost always cited as one of the factors — and is becoming a larger concern.

If the polluted skies continue, firms may have to fork out more for salaries or settle for less qualified candidates. Failure to attract the best talent to crucial roles could result in lost commercial opportunities and other missteps.

Poor air quality has also added to the existing complaints foreign companies have about operating in China. Even though the country’s commercial potential remains vast, groups representing foreign firms say doing business is getting tougher due to slowing though still robust economic growth, limits on market access and intellectual property theft.

China’s rapid economic development over the last three decades has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty but also ravaged the environment as heavy industry burgeoned and car ownership became a badge of status for the newly affluent. Health risks from pollution of air, water and soil have become a source of discontent with Communist Party rule.

Foreigners regularly check the air quality readings put out by the U.S. Embassy and consulates on their Twitter feeds when deciding whether to go out for a run or let their children play outside.

The pollution has become even more of a hot topic since January, when the readings in Beijing went off the scale and beyond what is considered hazardous by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

At the same time, China’s state media gave unprecedented coverage to the pollution following months of growing pressure from a Chinese middle class that has become more vocal about the quality of its air.

“January was probably the worst,” said Australian Andrew Moffatt, who worked in Beijing before the pollution pushed him to return to Brisbane in March with his wife and 5-year-old son. “Back in November I had been sick and then we went on holiday to the beach in Hainan, and it just reminded me of Australia and I just thought we could be breathing this quality air every single day rather than polluted air in Beijing.”

And it’s not only in the capital where the air pollution is driving expats away.

Ford transferred its regional headquarters from Bangkok to Shanghai in 2009. Four months after the move, Small had her first major asthma attack. “I had never had asthma in my life, never ever had asthma before China,” said Small, who quit the country in May last year.

Her asthma was exacerbated by an allergy to coal, which is the source of about 70 percent of China’s energy. In Shanghai, the problem resurfaced. “Three hospitalizations later, my doctor said it was time to call it quits,” she said.

Her frequent treatments — involving inhalers, steroids and a nebulizer in the mornings and evenings to get medication deep into her lungs — meant the medication became less effective. “I actually got a written warning from my pulmonary doctor and it said you need to reconsider for your life’s sake what you’re doing and so that was it. I didn’t really have a choice, my doctor made it for me,” she said.

Ivo Hahn, the CEO of the China office of executive search consultants Stanton Chase, said that in the last six months, air pollution has become an issue for candidates they approach. “It pops up increasingly that people say, ‘Well, we don’t want to move to Beijing’ or ‘I can’t convince my family to move to Beijing,’ ” he said.

Hahn thinks this trend will only strengthen over the next one or two years because the highest-level executives generally “are not working primarily for their survival.” Such employees, he said, “normally get a decent pay, they are generally reasonably well taken care of, so the quality of life actually does matter, particularly when they have children.”

Some, however, say that China has become too important economically for up-and-coming corporate executives to ignore. It generates a large and growing share of profits for global companies while still offering a vast untapped potential.

“It’s increasingly important for people who want to have careers as managers in multinational companies to have international experience, and as part of their career path and in terms of international experience, China is one of the most desirable places because of the size of the market and growth and dynamism of the market,” said Christian Murck, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

Hahn said the effects of expats refusing to relocate to China aren’t going to be felt overnight, but eventually “either companies will have to pay a higher price overall because maybe candidates may have to commute, as an example, or they may lower their standards or they may offer the position to somebody who may actually not be quite as qualified.”

If the trend worsens, it would have some economic impact, said Alistair Thornton, senior China economist at IHS in Beijing.

“Expats contribute almost nothing to China’s growth because the numbers are just tiny, but intangibly they contribute quite a significant amount” by introducing foreign technology, best practices and Western management techniques “that Chinese companies are harnessing and using to drive growth,” said Thornton.

He is leaving Beijing in June, citing air pollution as one of the factors.

It's good to bring in staff from overseas, but that is only half the job

Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, a great number of its state-owned enterprises have developed businesses overseas. An increasing number of SOEs are also conducting international commerce with other countries. Both trends show us that the need for excellent international talent has become inevitable for SOEs. But the fierce competition among all kinds of companies in the knowledge-based economy has led to an urgent lack of foreign talent in SOEs over the years.

There is no doubt that it is critical for companies to take care of their foreign talent, especially high-end management talent and multitalented expats. From human resource management to human resource development, to retain foreign talent can be presented in every detail. But it is difficult to say whether SOEs have done a good job in retaining foreign talent.

To begin with, I would like to talk about the process of adaptation by foreign talent to the Chinese working environment. SOEs should always bear in mind that foreign employees may not stay at the company till the end of their contract.

If an SOE really wants a foreign talent to stay in the company for a long time, it really needs to take action. For instance, in order to help skilled foreigners get used to the environment quickly, a mentor from the company can be arranged to help the foreign employee with life and work issues. SOEs can also plan team-building activities to encourage them to communicate with local employees. Moreover, SOEs can organize training sessions for new employees so that they can get familiar with the company within a short time.

Another important issue is that fairness, transparency and efficiency in performance appraisals should be improved so skilled foreigners can receive objective feedback about their work. A fair performance appraisal plays an important role in the development of one's career. Foreign employees enjoy positive recognition from their company, while negative feedback may stimulate them to work harder.

It is also very important for a foreign talent to see an SOE's real action. To be specific, if a foreign talent performs very well, he or she expects to see a salary increase that matches what is noted in the performance appraisal.

Developing a better incentive system is also a positive action to take for SOEs.

What needs to be addressed is that both psychological and material incentives should be considered. The psychological incentive refers to an encouraging environment for foreign talent. Positive comment and feedback from management can infuse foreign talent with confidence, which can also develop into work motivation.

As for material incentives, I think SOEs should come up with some smart ones. By saying smart, I mean incentives that are tailored to foreign talent. Take housing subsidies. For foreign employees, a housing subsidy is not really practical. The majority of foreign employees in China rent houses rather than buy them. Instead of paying for the housing subsidy, SOEs could choose to pay for Chinese language courses if they are going to stay in China for a long time.

Another issue is with Chinese medical insurance. The Chinese medical insurance only covers expenditure in Chinese hospitals, but it is difficult for most foreign employees to talk with doctors or nurses in the local language. SOEs should consider foreign hospitals or clinics as options.

Lastly, taking care of the family of a foreign employee is also a good way keeping them. Foreign employees, being in another country, are unable to spend time with their families. Arranging a trip for the family of the foreign employee may be a great idea.

There are still a lot of challenges for SOEs. Attracting and retaining international talent is certainly not an easy task, but it would be helpful for SOEs to solve the issue of retaining talent by considering the suggestions set out here.

The author is CEO & founder of RMG Selection, an Asia-focused human resources and recruitment consultancy.

The living environment has become a growing concern for expatriates working in Shanghai and Beijing, although the two cities topped a list of the most attractive Chinese cities for expats, a new study found.

The survey — 2012 Amazing China, conducted between September and December by International Talent, a magazine under the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs — gauged views of 175,400 expats working in China about their favorite Chinese cities.

Among those expats, 1,050 were surveyed about their opinions on the policy, administration, and working and living environments of their cities.

Shanghai and Beijing were topped the list, followed by Shenzhen, Suzhou, Kunming, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin, Xiamen and Qingdao.

In Shanghai and Beijing, their living-environment scores were lower than those of other cities, said Zhang Xiao, who was in charge of the survey.

Cities such as Suzhou, Kunming and Hangzhou received comparatively high scores in living environment, and that helped boost their rankings, she said.

Despite topping the chart for three years, Beijing and Shanghai underperformed this time in living environment as foreigners living in these two cities have complained about the worsening air pollution, according to the survey.

The smog-shrouded sky over Beijing is discouraging expats from staying longer and scaring away others who would otherwise love to visit, work, and live in the city, the study showed.

"Recruitment has become difficult as the number of foreigners who are applying for teaching positions in Beijing has decreased by at least half compared with the same time last year," said Yang Sha, general manager with Angelina International Placement Service in Beijing, which specializes in hiring foreigners to teach languages in schools in China.

"Air quality is absolutely the main reason," he said.

All four foreign staff members in Yang's company left Beijing this year because of the smog.

One left for the southern city of Xiamen, Fujian province, and the others went back to their home countries, Yang said.

The Makeevs are leaving Beijing this summer. It was a tough decision for the family to make. They've lived here for a decade and have grown attached to the capital's ways, its oddities and its quirks.

But the air pollution, amid a number of concerns, finally became too much for the Russian couple after giving birth to a baby girl last September.

In their home near the East Fourth Ring Road across from Chaoyang Park, the couple stays at home as much as possible on heavily polluted days. Their air purifier runs around the clock, windows stay closed and masks are a must when they do go out.

"Beijing's air got worse in the last year, and this winter was especially bad," said Makeev, who runs an export business in Beijing.

The heavy smog that blanketed eastern parts of China for much of the winter triggered international attention to China's air pollution issue, especially in the capital where some 200,000 expatriates reside.

The US embassy's air quality index classified pollution levels as "beyond the index" several times in January. However, the official index put out by environmental authorities, which usually stands in contrast to the US embassy data, also showed in parts of Beijing that the pollution levels were too high to be read at monitoring stations.

Staying away

"We feel drowsy, we get headaches, we cough. We even noticed differences in the baby's behavior, as she gets cranky and doesn't sleep well," Makeev said. He explained that in Russia, it's common to spend at least two to three hours daily outside to let babies get fresh air.

Besides air pollution, Makeev also worries about food and water quality. The comfortable and cheap cocoon that lured many expats to Beijing is cracking. Rents are up, high prices are being charged for low-quality products and traffic is an ever-worsening chore, he said. The increasingly evident wealth gap is also making him uncomfortable.

In pursuit of better climate and business opportunities, the couple has decided to leave for Malaysia soon.

Makeev's worries are shared among many in the expat community in Beijing, and the couple are not the only ones planning on leaving.

There were at least two high-profile cases of foreigners asking to be repatriated in January, when PM2.5 readings in Beijing climbed to over 800, said Max Price, a partner at Antal International China office, a global executive recruitment corporation. A PM2.5 reading over 500 is already considered serious pollution.

Price told the Global Times that a high-ranking lawyer and a senior technical professional working for two German automobile companies respectively insisted on being repatriated to their original countries and left.

"When I speak to my international colleagues, their first questions are never about how business is going or how I am doing personally. They always ask about the pollution," he said. "It's really something I never experienced before."

When speaking to people as a recruiter, quality of life used to be the third question following the actual duties of the job and the salary, but now it has jumped to second on the list, Price said, adding that this mainly happens with people with families.

A lot of foreigners who are keen on staying in China are turning their attention toward second-tier or third-tier cities, as these have increased employment options and better air quality, said Price.

The recent H7N9 bird flu outbreak has also come to complicate matters.

"A lack of communication and a limited number of reports have made people fear the worse and compare it with the SARS outbreak 10 years ago," he said, noting that these aspects are making Beijing and Shanghai less attractive than other Chinese cities to expats.

Although there is no official data on how many foreigners are leaving Beijing or tourists staying away for fear of the pollution, the Beijing municipal tourism data showed a slump of foreign visitors in February and March this year compared to 2012.

According to the statistics, Beijing saw 165,000 foreign visitors in February, 37 percent less than last year.

Protect yourselves

January's heavy smog has led to anxious discussions among Beijing residents who have been scrambling for protection such as air purifiers and air pollution masks. All the major brands sold out quickly, and many are still out of stock due to soaring demand.

At the meantime, the non-medical term "Beijing cough" went viral on social media in January, referring to the dry cough and scratchy throat suffered by foreigners upon arrival in Beijing.

Richard Saint Cyr, a family medicine physician at Beijing United Family Hospital, told the Global Times that most doctors at the hospital, especially in the emergency room, had not noticed an extraordinary increase in respiratory problems.

"But I certainly saw many people coming in with asthma exacerbations or serious coughing. I've had discussions with a few patients, both foreign and local, who are thinking of leaving Beijing due to the pollution," he said.

Sean Dugdale, an American exchange student with Peking University, said he was hoping to work in Beijing after college but had given up that idea because of the pollution.

When the smog hit the city, Dugdale's family grew worried and sent him an e-mail with pictures showing the smog-covered Tiananmen Square. He has now decided to return to the US after his one-year exchange program ends.

Over the past four or five months, Price noticed cases where some foreigners, mostly at American companies, are asking for "danger money" when negotiating a contract with employers if they are to continue working in Beijing.

Danger money, he explained, is an extra bonus one asks for when confronted with safety risks in the country of employment. Traditionally, this is associated with nations like Angola and Nigeria, where security risks are high, and roughly amounts to 10 percent of one's annual salary package.

"I think many young people are more willing to trade the pollution off against the opportunities that are available in Beijing, particularly given the economy in many western countries right now," said Ashley Howlett, a partner at global law firm Jones Day's Beijing office.

He said there are still a lot of foreigners seeking job opportunities in Beijing, although it is becoming more difficult for multinational companies to sell Beijing as a perfect location when hiring. Howlett's wife and children moved back to New Zealand, their home country, four years ago as the air quality in Beijing was having a bad effect on his 11-year-old asthmatic son.

Matt Hope, a British artist had sought solution to air pollution with his "Breathing Bike," a pedal-powered air filtration system that provides clean air to the rider as it moves.

"Most of my friends came to stay for a while then leave, and some do leave China considering their families' health. For me, I still feel a lot of things are interesting in China for my art practicing," he told the Global Times.

"I think Beijing struggled to attract people before the pollution became a news item.

With its harsh climate and drab concrete skyline it doesn't make a good backdrop for postcards, however what's left of old Beijing still has a fan base," Hope said.

Positive steps

The Beijing government has vowed to make greater efforts to tackle air pollution, including a "clean air pact" that aims to reduce major pollutants concentration by an average of 2 percent by the end of this year.

Experts have also called for more international cooperation on pollution control, both at the official level and via communications among environmental organizations.

Jack Marzulli, a research fellow with New York City-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) China, told the Global Times that he'll be returning to the US at the end of his one-year post with the organization's Sustainable Cities Team.

"The pollution is definitely one of the reasons that I'm not seriously considering staying in Beijing longer term," said Marzulli. "Ironically, it's also one of the reasons I moved here in the first place."

Having visited Beijing in the past, Marzulli said he wanted to be part of the effort in fighting Beijing's pollution and specifically applied for a post at the NRDC's Beijing office.

"The air pollution constantly reminds me how important our work is," he said.

There is still a lot of work to be done to improve the air quality in Beijing and the rest of China, but environmental organizations are making a lot of progress, he said, while public awareness of air pollution and other environmental issues is increasing significantly.

China has been sparing no efforts in improving air quality and curbing pollution and Japan is glad to offer its assistance to the government, companies and NGOs, said Okazaki Yuta, First Secretary of the Economic Section (Environment) at the Embassy of Japan in China.

"I'd like to extend my heartfelt sympathy to residents who suffered from heavy smog earlier this year. As the father of two children, I'm heartbroken when seeing Chinese kids getting sick because of the air pollution," said Okazaki.

He lives in Beijing with his wife and two sons, and the family has come to depend on its air purifier.

"Japan also experienced serious air pollution before, and I don't want to see more harm caused by pollution anywhere in this world," he said.

"I'd like to continue working in Beijing, hoping that our experiences, lessons and technologies can help China find a solution."

Results of the 2012 Amazing China - The Most Attractive Chinese Cities for Foreigners survey were released. Expats chose Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and others as China's 10 most attractive cities for foreigners.

The cities that made the top 10 list are: Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Kunming, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin, Xiamen and Qingdao.

Launched in September 2012, the voting invited 175,400 expats over the past year to appraise their favorite Chinese cities, and 1,050 have been polled for their opinions on four categories: policy, administration, working and living environments.

The expats polled in the survey conducted by International Talent Magazine include Chinese Friendship Award recipients, foreign scholars and scientists selected for the Recruitment Program of Global Experts, and other foreign professionals working in China. Those polled suggested many ways for Chinese cities to become more appealing destinations for global professionals.

*Shanghai*

“My impression is that essentially everywhere in China people are very friendly and helpful and medical care is perfect for foreigners, natural environment is great and its protection is well recognized as a major task today for the future. So, every one of those 49 cities should have been mentioned essentially for every category.

The main future task for China is probably coping with migration, and improving life andschooling in the countryside. But also this you know very well.” --- German mathematician Andreas Dress

*Beijing*

“It’s pretty easy for foreigners to live in a nice city, and the people in China are very friendly. I am enjoying my life in Beijing.” ---Former NBA player Stephon Marbury

*Shenzhen*

“Shenzhen government has been very productive about attracting, retaining and supporting foreign talent, more so than elsewhere I have seen in China.

The social and environmental infrastructure in Shenzhen is very attractive to foreigners. Transportation links and the proximity to Hong Kong are also most valuable.” ---British financial expert Richard David Jackson

*Suzhou*

“Since modernization started in China, Suzhou’s local government has been putting a great emphasis on investment, scientific research and other development projects.

Technology and Innovation park’s traffic is convenient, the park is close to Shang-hai. Its environment is good, clean, quiet, which is suitable for the development of the company.

Local residents are industrious and sincere, moreover, local government can timely care about our development, timely solve our difficulties in any side.” ---Russian physician Teplukhin Vladimir

*Kunming*

“The city is well managed by the local government, and they are concentrating on making it a better city for all its citizens, including foreigners.” ---New Zealand garden manager Lewis William Dagger

*Hangzhou*

“Hangzhou people are simple, friendly and kind. Hangzhou government at all levels is very practical and diligent. They respect knowledge, talent and creation.” ---German expert Bruno Klaus Filter

*Nanjing*

“Nanjing?from my first visit in 1987 , to now in 2012 has developed into a cosmopolitan city while maintaining Chinese culture and charm.” --- American expert Bikram S. Gill

*Tianjin*

“Tianjin, as a famous city, is historical, cultured, environmental, and most important city, which is very suitable to live in. I love Tianjin and regard Tianjin as my second hometown, and I will spread propaganda for Tianjin. I love Tianjin, wish a bright future for Tianjin, and wish happiness for the people of Tianjin.” --- Russian expert Eugeny Kaspersky

*Xiamen*

“I think Xiamen is one of the most attractive cities for foreigners who work in China. The city is very nice and wonderful, and this place is a very safe place for foreigners and their families.” ---South Korean engineer Won Ho Moon

*Qingdao*

“Qingdao City possesses a very good, quick-developing infrastructure, which combine with a beautiful architecture landscape ensemble and nature color.

I can see Qingdao City as a fine place for realization of creative projects, business, rest.” ---Russian expert Vladimir Kabanov

Governments in rural areas are harvesting the experience of overseas returnees to boost grassroots development.

Zhou Ti studied at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in France for more than two years for a master's degree in management.

The 27-year-old returned to China in 2010 and found a job at an investment bank in Beijing paying almost 200,000 yuan ($32,000) a year.

After working for the bank for two years, he decided to go back to his hometown in Hunan province where a county was recruiting overseas returnees for town-level positions.

Zhou signed a three-year contract with Changsha county last year and now works with Kaihui town's environmental protection office, largely dealing with policymaking and trying to reduce its vehicle emissions.

"I need to visit villages every day, see how households are following the rules, such as the ban on livestock excreting into farmland or ponds," he said. "My workmates and I also keep records of each household's waste sorting and we financially reward families that do well."

Although the work pays only 3,000 yuan a month, Zhou said he believes the job offers a good platform through which he can put his own thoughts into practice.

"The job helps me improve my ability to communicate with people," he said. "I want to keep doing the job if I can make some achievements."

Leaders of town and county authorities are enthusiastic about recruiting and retaining overseas returnees like Zhou.
Changsha county hired 10 returnees for grassroots posts last year. The recruitment attracted 112 applicants, labor official Yang Xige said.

All 10 had master's degrees or above and now have different village positions according to their majors, he said.
"We assess their performance twice a year," Yang explained. "If they contribute to economic and social development, we will introduce more overseas returnees."

Deng Ruiqi, also 27, is another recruit of the county's program. He spent four years in France and works as secretary of the Communist Youth League of China for Fulin town.

Deng's main job is to explain government policies to villagers. "Once I visited 70 households in two days. The work has helped me accumulate grassroots work experience that I couldn't have acquired from books," he said.

Deng successfully organized a gala in September, raising about 400,000 yuan from businesses and individuals to address the schooling problems of children from poor families.

Deng hopes the experience can help him get a position in higher-level government bodies.

Other places are also looking at overseas returnees.

Beijing's labor authority started to hire overseas returnees to be village heads in 2011. More than 30 applied for the posts, and five were recruited.

Song Xin has a master's in education from La Trobe University in Australia and now works as assistant to the head of Paifang village in Beijing's Chaoyang district.

"The premier obstacle I need to conquer is how to communicate with villagers," the 28-year-old said. "I told myself I am a farmer from the day I took the job."

He said by doing this, he can really understand what villagers are thinking about.

Song's job also requires him to mediate civil disputes. "Sometimes the work is like cracking a hard nut, but it helped me understand how to be down-to-earth, as well as the importance of dealing well with every small issue," he said.

Overseas returnees have a comparatively broad scope of vision and active thinking and their innovation is an advantage, but grassroots jobs are not yet major employment channels for them, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, which is in charge of the city's recruitment of village heads.

Overseas returnees are less active in applying for grassroots positions and are less stable in retaining the work compared with graduates from domestic universities, the bureau said.

Among the five overseas returnees recruited in the city, three have quit, it said.

Liu Xin, a professor of human resources at Renmin University of China, said it's normal for overseas returnees to take grassroots jobs because the employment situation is tough. Many find it hard to get a job when they return to China, he said.

"Managing a village requires a deep understanding of the rural political situation, including grassroots democratic elections," Liu said. "It can take a long time."

Courses offered by overseas schools don't necessarily suit domestic jobs, he said.

Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday invited more foreign experts to work in China, pledging better conditions for them.

With the Chinese Lunar New Year around the corner, Wen extended New Year's greetings to about 20 veteran foreign experts working in China's education, scientific research, culture and health sectors. They were invited to the Great Hall of the People for a seminar with the premier on Thursday.

Wen said foreign experts have contributed to China's revolution and modernization drive, which the Chinese people will always remember.

He also said China will unswervingly stick to the reform and opening-up policy.

"A nation can be prosperous only when it is open and inclusive," the premier said, adding that the number and quality of foreign experts reflect an open and civilized country.

"We will, as we are doing, welcome a large number of foreign experts, especially high-end talent in all fields to work in China and we will provide better policies and working environments for them," he said.

More than 550,000 foreign experts were working in China in 2012, according to Zhang Jianguo, director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

China has introduced various programs to attract foreign professionals.

The Recruitment Program of Foreign Experts, which started in 2011, aims to attract up to 1,000 foreign professionals over 10 years to help spur innovation, promote scientific research and corporate management.

The project has brought in 94 recruits.

Professionals recruited by the program will be entitled to subsidies, research allowances, favorable salaries, residency permits, medical care and insurance policies.

Guillermo Pulido of Mexico is one of the recruits.

Pulido now works as the director of the Center of Mexican Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

His job is to help more people in China understand Mexican culture, through its language, literature and history.

"I chose (to work in) China without a second thought," said Pulido, adding that his interest in China began when he was young. "I read books about ancient China at school in Mexico, and I became helplessly curious, especially about the ancient philosophies of Confucius and Lao Tzu," he said.

Wang Huiyao, director of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing, said in general the number of foreign experts working in China is comparatively small.

"We should further make our global talent introduction polices in accordance with international practices, such as using talent immigration measures and introducing more convenient visa and residence policies," he said.

"The United States attracts around 62 percent of the world's top scientists to live there and produces around 70 percent of the Nobel Price winners in natural science work in the country. That is closely related to its immigration and visa policy," Wang said.

Besides scientists, China should introduce more global talent in fields such as the economy, corporate management and higher education, he suggests.

China's new immigration law, which will take effect on July 1, 2013, will impose stiffer penalties on those found to have violated it, the Philippine Consulate General in Guangzhou warned on Thursday.

In a statement sent by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Consulate said the new immigration law provides particular attention to the so-called "three illegals" - illegal entry, residence and employment. Each violation is penalized with different and more severe penalty.

"Foreigners found illegally working in China may be subjected to a fine raning from RMB (renmibi) 5,000 to RMB20,000. Possible detention of five to 15 days may also be imposed for serious violations. Income acquired from illegal employment will also be confiscated. Illegal residents will be fined from RMB500 per day up to a maximum amount of RMB10,000, or imprisonment of five to 15 days," the statement said.

Under the new law, employers who hire foreigners without the proper permits and documentations will also be penalized.

The new law also provides fine and penalty of imprisonment to persons or organizations aiding foreigners in committing any activities defined under the so-called "three illegals."

The Consulate urged Filipino nationals affected by the changes in the immigration law to contact the Consulate for advice. The public is also warned about agents misrepresenting themselves as processors of exit visas for overstaying foreigners.

China is gearing up to lure more foreign talent, especially those with experience in engineering, bioscience and information science.

In order to facilitate the recruitment of experts, the country would adopt more market-oriented measures, including cooperation with high-level expert associations and headhunting firms, Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang Jianguo, a general director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs as saying.

Zhang said the Chinese government has established a 10-year programme in August 2011, which aims to employ 500 to 1,000 overseas high-caliber experts to help increasing China's economic and social development.

He said every employed expert would be offered one million yuan (US$160,000) as living expense subsidies.

"For scientific researcher, they would be given another three to five million yuan research subsidy," he said.

Currently, 94 foreign experts have been recruited under the programme, he added.

Chinese state-owned companies directly under the central government have hired more than 1,600 overseas employees, said Huang Shuhe, deputy director of the State Council's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, according to China Daily.

"International experts have helped these enterprises produce many of the world's leading technologies and products with their own intellectual property rights, and that has laid a foundation that will carry the enterprises forward," Huang was quoted by the paper as saying on Monday.

The Recruitment Program of Global Experts, started from 2008, has hired 136 high-level experts, the paper said.

Another recruitment program, started last year, aims to introduce up to 1,000 foreign professionals over 10 years to help spur innovation, promote scientific research and corporate management.

Zhang Jianguo, director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs. Told the paper the grogram has hired 94 people.

Professionals recruited by both programs will be entitled to subsidies, research allowances, favorable salaries, residency permits, medical care and insurance policies, the paper said.

Interviewees are in general management roles including CEOs and COOs:

79% of the respondents see a shrinking gap of compensation package between expat and local executives.

70% noticed a change in the type of expatriate workers that China is attracting - expatriates are now younger and from more diverse nations.

71% now believe it is harder for foreign-born executives working in China to gain access to local executive positions.

42% cited "employers favor local talent" as the most inhibiting factor to finding an executive job in China.

60% of the surveyed expatriates think employers would prefer to use less skilled local people to avoid paying an expatriate compensation package.

51% are actively looking for a new opportunity.

The survey was conducted by the Association of Executive Search Consultants.

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.

“Hiring 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’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) began its first global recruitment search for money managers to aid in the investment of the country’s $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.

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.

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.

Nearly nine out of 10 Chinese workers are under growing pressure at work as China leads the world toward economic recovery, a global survey has found.

The survey by Regus, a US-based provider of workplace solutions, polled 11,000 companies in 13 countries during August and September. It found 58 percent of companies worldwide had seen a rise in workplace stress during the preceding two years.

"Nearly 86 percent of Chinese people report that their levels of stress had become 'higher' or 'much higher' during the past two years," the survey noted.

The smallest increase in stress worldwide was felt in Germany and the Netherlands, with a respective 48 percent and 47 percent of workers saying they had experienced more stress.

With the World Bank forecasting China's GDP will grow by 8.4 percent this year, indicating the country is well on the way to recovery, Chinese workers are at the sharp end of the world's efforts to rebound.

"While their international counterparts feel stressed as a result of the global economic downturn, the stress faced by Chinese workers is twofold," said Hans Leijten, regional vice-president of East Asia for the Regus Group. "On the one hand, they must react fast to the new opportunities provided by a country that maintains a higher-than-8-percent GDP growth. On the other hand, they have to deal with the retraction challenges presented by the global economic downturn."

About 42 percent of Chinese workers said they were particularly stressed about the increasing focus on profitability.

Among the stressed workers, 28 percent said maintaining excellent levels of customer service was the main reason for their sleepless nights.

Another survey, from the Horizon Research Group, said respondents quizzed in June complained that the global financial crisis had contributed to rising pressure among Chinese workers.

About 34.2 percent of people interviewed for that survey said the crisis had increased workplace pressure.

Those most affected by the added stress were in the 24-30 age group and the majority worked for foreign-invested enterprises, the report said.

Most of the pressure at work came from career development, performance appraisal and salary issues.

In the midst of the downturn, employees were involved in fewer malpractices, were more likely to volunteer to do overtime and more inclined to postpone planned leave.

Both surveys reflect Chinese society, where many employees are inclined to put in long hours.

"Karoshi", or death from chronic overworking, is no longer a phenomenon reserved for the Japanese. In China, there have been reports of employees dying on the job. Early this month, a young software engineer at a video website died at his desk after putting in a series of 13-hour days.

"The pressure does not necessarily ease with different economic situations," said Sam Liu, a 31-year-old marketing strategy manager with a global company. "You have one kind of pressure in good times and another kind in bad times.

"I have time to sleep. But I have to sacrifice my hobbies and the time I would like to spend with my friends."

Among the reasons why some Chinese people work so hard is the massive competition within the vast workforce.

"There is always another guy who is willing to do 12 things when your boss has asked you to do 10 things.

"You deal with the pressure or you quit," Liu said. "It is up to you."

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. "

HONG KONG, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's unemployment rate for the three months ended October fell slightly to 5.2 percent, the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Tuesday.

The unemployment rate in the three-month period ended September, in comparison, was 5.3 percent, while that in the three-month period ended August was 5.4 percent.

Decreases in the unemployment rate were mainly observed in the construction, food services, insurance and wholesale sectors, the department said.

The Labor and Welfare Department said the further decrease reflected that the labor market has continued to show signs of improvement along with economic recovery.

"In particular, the unemployment rate of youths aged 15 to 19 dropped notably by 3 percentage points to 22.7 percent, indicating that the youth employment situation is gradually improving," Secretary for Labor and Welfare Matthew Cheung said.

"It is clear that the (HKSAR) government's all-out efforts to create jobs in the construction sector are continuing to bear fruit," he added.

Cheung said the near-term outlook would depend mainly on the pace of the economic recovery and job creation.

"As business conditions continue to improve, employers are expected to adopt a more positive attitude towards new hiring. This will ease the pressure on unemployment," he said.

Nevertheless, Cheung said the decrease in total employment in the latest round of figures suggested that it might take some time for the labor market to keep up with the pace of economic rebound.

"A sustained and solid recovery still hinges on a fundamental improvement in the external environment. We will remain vigilant and continue to monitor closely the labor market situation," he said.

MACAO, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- The median monthly employment earnings of the employed population in Macao amounted to 8,500 patacas (1,076 U.S. dollars) in the third quarter of this year, the same level as that of the second quarter, according to the figures released Thursday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

The figures showed that the median monthly employment earnings of the employed residents held stable as the previous quarter in the period, at 10,000 patacas (1,265 U.S. dollars).

Total labor force in Macao stood at 328,000 in the third quarter, with 316,000 being employed. Analyzed by industry, the majority of the employed were engaging in recreational, cultural, gaming and other services (23.2 percent) and hotels, restaurants and similar activities (14.1 percent).

Meanwhile, the unemployed population was 12,000 in the period, of which 82.4 percent were searching for a new job, while 17.6 percent were fresh labor force entrants searching for their first job. With regard to the educational attainment, 34.6 percent of the unemployed had primary education or lower, 29 percent had junior secondary education and 19.8 percent had senior secondary education, according to the DSEC.

HSBC (0005) says it has no plans to lay off staff in Hong Kong. The assurance comes one day after the lender said it was axing 1,700 employees in Britain.
"It's really the British side's affair," said Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen, chairman of local arm Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. "The European economy is not faring well, so it's not surprising to have positions reduced or natural wastage to compete better."

Cheng said in Hong Kong the bank has been recruiting staff, especially for frontline jobs.

HSBC sacked some 650 workers late last year and early 2009 when the global financial crisis began to bite hard, but hired 100 people in August.

And its insurance business said earlier this week it is hiring more financial services officers. HSBC will continue its Asian expansion while maintaining its present scale of its business in Britain, Cheng said.

UK rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group received bailouts totaling 46.5 billion (HK$595.11 billion) from the British government, but Cheng said HSBC is not facing any financial pressure.

He added the US$18 billion (HK$140.4 billion) raised from a rights issue earlier this year has yet to be used.

Cheng refuted claims that a 508 million yuan (HK$576.63 million) premium HSBC paid for its joint venture with the Bank of Communications (3328) is unfair, saying the local lender is very positive about its partner's credit card business development in the mainland.

Cheng believes recent moderate property price adjustments have not affected HSBC's mortgage business, adding more affordable homes may even give it a boost.

Employees in China’s richest city, Shanghai, saw salaries stagnate this year – at least compared with what they have grown used to.

They can’t expect much of a pick-up in 2010 either. Perhaps worse for many Shanghai workers used to ever-upward mobility is that its people will do merely as well as the rest of China.

Human-resources firm Hewitt Associates LLC on Thursday predicted average annual salary increases will be 7% in 2010, about equal to what is expected nationwide.

That won’t necessarily make things comfortable for employers. Hewitt’s Shanghai Compensation and Benefits Study concludes that for employers, it will be back to the challenge of hiring enough good workers: “In order to hire more talent, enterprises have put salary increases on the agenda.”

The study, which included 911 enterprise participants, shows the average annual salary increase in 2009 in Shanghai was 5.2% in the non-manufacturing sector and 5.4% in the manufacturing sector, about half the 11.2% and 10.1% increases seen in those sectors in 2008. The average lagged the national level of a 5.8% increase in salaries in 2009.

“As an international financial metropolis, Shanghai is inevitably influenced by financial crisis,” the firm said.

Rather than layoffs, it found salary freezes in Shanghai this year. The voluntary rate of turnover – job-hopping – slid 3.4 percentage points in 2009 to 13.9%, the firm found.

The employees still commanding good increases this year: pharmaceutical and medical-device firms, up 8.9% and 9.1% respectively.

The market for new job seekers was tougher than ever. The average starting salary for a fresh university graduate was 45,153 yuan ($6,615) this year, while post-graduates could earn 63,732 yuan.

Separately, Standard Chartered Bank economist Stephen Green, in a report Thursday, takes issue with the conclusions reached in China’s effort to track urban private sector wages. He said the National Bureau of Statistics study probably captures only about 42% of the nation’s 450 million workers. Since the ones missed are likely lower-paid migrant workers, the official statistics probably overstate actual wages, said his report.

Mr. Green puts the urban wage at 1,476 yuan a month, compared with the government’s estimate of 2,077 yuan.

Many workers in Guangzhou are facing salary cuts or job losses, as both the private and the public sectors struggle in the midst of the economic crisis.

As many as 40 percent of the State-owned enterprises (SOEs), or government-controlled shareholding companies, have reduced or plan to reduce staff salaries in the prosperous southern metropolis, according to a recent survey conducted by Guangzhou Urban Survey and Research Center.

More than 50 percent of the city's privately-operated companies have cut jobs in the past months, according to the survey.

But less than 10 percent of the Party and government departments and bureaus have cut staff or reduced salaries.

"Many SOEs have run into difficulties this year because of the worldwide financial crisis," said a manager from a local SOE yesterday.

Requiring staffs to increase their days off, limiting overtime working hours, reducing salaries and cutting staff have become common measures to fight the financial crisis, said the manager who declined to be named.

"I hoped all the staff can join hands with us to conquer the difficulties," he added.

More than 83 percent of Cantonese people said their lives have been affected by the financial crisis in the past months, the survey showed.

Only 16 percent of the interviewees said their lives have remained unchanged under the economic slump.

And more than 78 percent of the interviewees are cautiously optimistic about salary increases in 2010.

The survey interviewed 1,016 residents in the city's downtown districts of Yuexiu, Liwan, Haizhu, Tianhe, Baiyun and Huangpu in September.

Chen Zhaomin, a staffer from a logistics company, said his monthly salary has not been reduced, but all his allowances for travel, telecommunication and entertainment have either been cancelled or sharply reduced.

"And I have not worked any overtime this year, because my boss cannot pay me overtime," Chen told China Daily yesterday.

Chen estimated his annual income would decrease by about 20 percent this year.

And Wang Cuihong, an accountant from a private firm, said that since the beginning of the year her company has forced staff to take an additional 20 days off every six months.

Also, the staff are usually given only 20 percent of their wages when they are on holidays, Wang said.

Affected by the income reduction, Wang and her family have cut daily living expenses by at least 10 percent this year, she said.

Wuxi, a picturesque city that lies along the Taihu Lake resort, is planning to build a "little India" in years to come.

Wuxi is traditionally a manufacturing city. But with more focus on environmental protection, especially after a serious blue-green algae outbreak in Taihu Lake that triggered a clean water crisis in mid-2007, city leaders started to study how to transform the city's development.

Wuxi decided to replace manufacturing with the service outsourcing industry, which has far less pollution and consumes much less energy.

According to its ambitious development plan, the city is expected to attract $30 billion to $40 billion in service outsourcing business and help create service outsourcing jobs for 1 million people by 2020 - equivalent to that of India as a whole in 2007.

The advancement of the service outsourcing industry cannot survive without a large talent pool.

But the city three years ago learned that fewer than 2,000 students in the city were studying software and information technology fields.

As a result, Wuxi established a goal to build a total area of 6 million sq m for software service outsourcing within three years, and encouraged enterprises to cultivate and import skilled workers.

These policies were well received. In 2008, Wuxi's service outsourcing business accounted for 39.2 percent of companies in Jiangsu province, and the city employed 28.5 percent of Jiangsu province's service industry employees, according to Fang Wei, deputy mayor of Wuxi.

Growing jobs

This year, the Wuxi government launched a new program to train university graduates. Outsourcing companies will receive a rebate of 4,000 yuan ($586) for hiring a graduate, and every graduate of the training program will receive 1,000 yuan as a subsidy.

The city's financial sector is also actively providing financial support to enterprises in the service outsourcing industry.

In February, Wuxi became one of 20 cities approved by the General Office of the State Council to build a service outsourcing demonstration city.

In June, 15 banks provided a credit line of more than 4 billion yuan for the city's 115 service outsourcing enterprises.

The local government joined India's National Institute of Information Technologies (NIIT), the world's second-largest educational institution, to establish the NIIT (China) Outsourcing College in Wuxi as a training base for the city's outsourcing businesses.

While the domestic macro-economy continues to be affected by the global financial crisis, outsourcing is maintaining robust growth in Wuxi.

The city signed $1.14 billion in contracts from January to July, up 110 percent year-on-year.

Experts estimated that by 2010, there will be as many as 100 international service outsourcing and software exports enterprises with annual export values of as much as $30 million.

So far, Wuxi has attracted 22 investment projects from leading multinational service outsourcing corporations and 50 domestic industry heavyweights. Half of China's top 10 industry heavyweights have established headquarters in Wuxi.

But Fang is looking at bigger goals. "Wuxi is on its way to becoming a 'little India'," he said.

After India matured as the world's largest service-outsourcing base, many East Asian countries - including the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam - began competing for more market share.

"Enterprises from the Chinese mainland haven't had much advantage in competing with these countries, but the cooperation across the Straits should bring some opportunities," said Zhou Ming, deputy director of the China Council for International Investment Promotion (CCIIP).

The service sector accounts for more than 70 percent of the island province's total GDP.

Zhou said Taiwan's industrial development experience, technology and branding, along with a massive market and substantial human resources on the Chinese mainland, will greatly enhance the international competitiveness of both regions.

In spite of the financial crisis, the global service outsourcing industry posted a growth rate of 6.3 percent in 2008 - a strong performance in comparison to the world's average GDP of 2.5 percent.

Many developing countries see the outsourcing industry as an opportunity to survive the international economic downturn, experts said.

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.

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.

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.

HONG KONG, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's labor market has begun to improve as the latest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate recorded its first drop since the outbreak of the global financial turmoil last year, said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Monday.

Hong Kong's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 5.4percent in the June-August period to 5.3 percent in July-September. The underemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.4percent, the Census and Statistics Department said on Monday.

Secretary for Labor and Welfare Matthew Cheung said as business conditions gradually improve and the labor market stabilizes, employers may adopt a more positive attitude towards recruitment.

"This is expected to ease the pressure on the unemployment rate in the near term," Cheung said.

Total employment in July-September was 3,495,500, about the same as June-August which stood at 3,495,300. The labor force fell7, 400 to 3,704, 700 in July-September.

The number of unemployed fell 7,700 to 209,100 in July- September while the number of underemployed rose 1,700 to 89,900.

Falls in the unemployment rate were mainly observed in the construction, information and communications, arts, entertainment and recreation sectors.

The unemployment rate of people aged 15 to 19 fell 2.7 percent to 25.7 percent, showing that the local government's efforts to boost youth employment have begun to take effect.

Cheung also noted that the recovery path may still be uneven as overseas markets have yet to show visible improvement.

He said the government will promote employment on all fronts through training, retraining and skills upgrading.

THE number of job openings on China's mainland is expected to rise in the fourth quarter after posting consecutive declines since last October, according to a report released yesterday by Hudson Recruitment Ltd, a global consulting company.

In the survey of 650 companies on the Chinese mainland, the Hudson Report concluded that 39 percent of them plan to increase headcount in the fourth quarter this year - a sharp increase from 27 percent in the last quarter.

More than half of the firms polled signaled that they will keep their payroll steady in the quarter. Only 5 percent of the companies are planning to cut their number of employees, a drop from 12 percent in the third quarter.

"Although the overall hiring expectations are still lower than a year ago, it is a clear sign that the job market is going on an upward trend," said Mark Carriban, managing director of Hudson Asia.

The study also showed that China reported the highest hiring expectations of the markets surveyed in Asia.

The banking and financial services sector posted the highest expectations of hiring and the greatest increase from the previous quarter. About 54 percent of respondents plan to hire more staff, up from 28 percent in the last quarter.

Expectations have also risen among information technology and telecommunication firms, with 53 percent of the respondents predicting hiring more, representing a substantial jump from 33 percent of the previous quarter.

The media, public relations and advertising companies have the lowest expectations of hiring intention, with 17 percent planning to increase payroll. But only 2 percent say they will shed staff this quarter, down from 17 percent in last quarter, the report said.

The Hudson Report is released quarterly after surveying about 2,000 key employment decision makers.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Proficiency in the English language helps create better job opportunities and brings comparatively higher pay for employees in Taiwan, according to the latest survey by an online employment agency. As high as 68 percent of enterprises or organizations in Taiwan include a good command of English among the major criteria when recruiting new employees. They are also willing to offer an average of NT$3,105 more in starting salaries to those with stronger competence in the international language.

The survey by online job agency www.1111.com.tw also shows that companies in the field of trading, product distribution, industrial and commercial services and education, as well as government agencies place the highest priority for English proficiency.

However, only 22 percent of salary earners presently possess credible English proficiency certificates.

A high percentage of job seekers — 67 percent — admit they lost interview opportunities when looking for new jobs because of inferior English capability.

The survey finds that 71.2 percent of employees believe that improved English ability will bring more employment opportunities and better positions with higher pay.

But among the 78.2 percent of employees who still have no English proficiency certificates, 64 percent acknowledged that their current level is still not up to the tests, while 36 percent said they even don't know how to prepare for such examinations.

A representative of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) of the U.S. stationed here said the average TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) score in Taiwan ranks at eighth place in the Asian region, falling behind China and South Korea.

The general English level of professionals like certified public accountants and lawyers, as well as R&D staff at electronics and other high-tech companies in Taiwan, is below international standards, hampering the nation's overall competitiveness in the world market, he said.

But he also pointed out that the number of people taking the TOEIC certifying test here has continued to increase in recent years, rising to 180,000 in 2008 from about 40,000 in 2004.

This shows that more people in Taiwan have become aware of the important role of English language in their careers.

Another positive development is that the average TOEIC score of marketing staff here has risen above the level of people in similar positions around the world, he said.

The survey of English proficiency and job opportunities, covering 488 employees and 1,465 employees, was carried out islandwide Oct. 1-14 this year.

The Chinese central government will start its annual recruitment of new staff in mid October, offering about 15,000 positions, said the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security here Monday.

About 130 departments of the central government and affiliated institutions will recruit new staff, said a statement issued by the ministry.

The ministry will start taking in applications from Oct. 15 to 24 and an examination will be held on Nov. 29 at the capitals of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and several big cities, the statement said.

The departments prefer people with grassroots working experience, it said. "About 70 percent of the positions will be taken by people with at least two years of working experience at the grassroots level."

A quota will be provided for young people who finish their service in the government programs of working at remote and less developed regions and villages after college graduation, it said. But the statement did not release how much it will be.

"We hope high quality talents with adequate grassroots experience will work for the central government," said a ministry official in charge of the recruitment.

The application will be done on Internet.

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.

HONG KONG - ELECTRONICS manufacturing giant Flextronics International said on Tuesday it will hire more than 6,000 migrant workers in mainland China this month because of a rise in demand ahead of Christmas.

The company will also take on an additional 1,000 workers in the next two months, Valerie Kurniawan, senior communications director for Flextronics Asia, told AFP.

'The demand is coming from all over the group, it's all segments and industries,' Ms Kurniawan said.

Flextronics makes parts and equipment for the automotive and mobile phone industries among others and its clients include Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and Microsoft Corp. The company's latest hiring spree has focused on its Zhuhai Industrial Park in the Pearl River Delta in the south of the country.

Chinese factories have been rushing to hire migrant workers laid off during the global crisis as they ramp up production but analysts have warned that the labour shortage stems from a short-term rise in demand from Christmas orders rather than a recovery in China's key export sector.

Nearly 20 million migrant workers lost their jobs at the start of the year as factories closed or slashed production in response to plummeting export orders from key markets in Europe and the United States.

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.

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.

SHANGHAI: A survey released by 51job Inc Wednesday, a leading provider of integrated human resource services in China, showed that over 70 percent of enterprises which have been affected by the financial crisis have seen a gradual recovery this year. Some have maintained the same revenue they did last year and some have even achieved higher revenue, the survey showed.

Online game, e-commerce, food and commodity industries invested more in employee recruitment and training, said Feng Lijuan, chief HR expert of 51job Inc. A total of 100 enterprises have been chosen the best companies in terms of human resource management.

"The award will be presented to those whose human resources practices have made significant contributions to their corporate development," said Feng.

Through the award selection process, 51job Inc discovered that over these past few months, HR managers had turned a time of crisis into an opportunity to demonstrate the growing value of human resource management, she added.

"Today, human resource management is not only a partner to business strategy and development, but also an effective tool to manage economic slowdowns," Feng said.

The 100 best HR companies cover 19 industries, with IT at the top, manufacturing ranking second and finance third. Most face fierce competition for talent. Among them, foreign-funded companies occupy a majority and there are more State-owned ones than private ones, she said.

"Foreign-funded ventures were largely impacted globally by the economic slowdown, but their business in China has achieved the fastest recovery," Feng said.

The 100 winners have taken some actions to decrease the staff turnover rate by the preference of internal recruitment and rotation, according to Feng.

"What's more," Feng said, "the reinforced performance management they have made enables them to keep a higher salary level for employees."

Salaries of the 100 winners increased by 4.92 percent in the first half of this year over the same period last year. Among them, 52 companies increased salaries by five per cent to 10 per cent.

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.

BEIJING — When the best job Mikala Reasbeck could find after college in Boston was counting pills part-time in a drugstore for $7 an hour, she took the drastic step of jumping on a plane to Beijing in February to look for work.

A week after she started looking, the 23-year-old from Wheeling, West Virginia, had a full-time job teaching English.

"I applied for jobs all over the U.S. There just weren't any," said Reasbeck, who speaks no Chinese but had volunteered at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In China, she said, "the jobs are so easy to find. And there are so many."

Young foreigners like Reasbeck are coming to China to look for work in its unfamiliar but less bleak economy, driven by the worst job markets in decades in the United States, Europe and some Asian countries.

Many do basic work such as teaching English, a service in demand from Chinese businesspeople and students. But a growing number are arriving with skills and experience in computers, finance and other fields.

"China is really the land of opportunity now, compared to their home countries," said Chris Watkins, manager for China and Hong Kong of MRI China Group, a headhunting firm. "This includes college graduates as well as maybe more established businesspeople, entrepreneurs and executives from companies around the world."

Watkins said the number of resumes his company receives from abroad has tripled over the past 18 months.

China's job market has been propped up by Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus, which helped to boost growth to 7.9 percent from a year earlier in the quarter that ended June 30, up from 6.1 percent the previous quarter. The government says millions of jobs will be created this year, though as many as 12 million job-seekers still will be unable to find work.

Andrew Carr, a 23-year-old Cornell University graduate, saw China as a safer alternative after classmates' offers of Wall Street jobs were withdrawn due to the economic turmoil.

Passing up opportunities in New York, San Francisco and Boston, Carr started work in August at bangyibang.com, a Web site in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen that lets the public or companies advertise and pay for help in carrying out business research, getting into schools, finding people and other tasks.

"I noticed the turn the economy was taking, and decided it would be best to go directly to China," said Carr, who studied Chinese for eight years.

Most of his classmates stayed in the United States and have taken some unusual jobs — one as a fishing guide in Alaska.

China can be more accessible to job hunters than economies where getting work permits is harder, such as Russia and some European Union countries.

Employers need government permission to hire foreigners, but authorities promise an answer within 15 working days, compared with a wait of months or longer that might be required in some other countries. An employer has to explain why it needs to hire a foreigner instead of a Chinese national, but the government says it gives special consideration to people with technical or management skills.

Rules were tightened ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, apparently to keep out possible protesters. That forced some foreign workers to leave as their visas expired.

Some 217,000 foreigners held work permits at the end of 2008, up from 210,000 a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Thousands more use temporary business visas and go abroad regularly to renew them.

Reasbeck said it took her two months to find the drugstore job after she graduated from Boston's Emerson College with a degree in writing, literature and publishing. She said she applied to as many as 50 employers nationwide.

Today, on top of her teaching job, she works part-time recruiting other native English-speaking teachers. She makes 14,000 to 16,000 yuan ($2,000 to $2,300) a month.

"I could have a pretty comfortable life here on not a very high salary. English teachers are in high demand," she said.

Reasbeck said most of her college classmates are in part-time jobs or unemployed.

"People are sleeping on their mom's couches, as far as I know," she said.

While many jobs require at least a smattering of Chinese, some employers that need other skills are hiring people who do not speak the language.

Bangyibang.com's founder and CEO, Grant Yu, has five foreign employees in his 35-member work force. Yu plans to add more and said he might hire applicants who cannot speak Chinese if they have other skills.

"I don't believe language is the biggest obstacle in communication, as long as he or she has a strong learning ability," Yu said.

Feng Li, a partner in a Chinese-Canadian private fund in Beijing that invests in the mining industry, said he needs native speakers of foreign languages to read legal documents and communicate with clients abroad. He plans to recruit up to six foreign employees.

"We don't need Chinese guys who speak English like me," Feng said.

Some foreigners see China not just as a refuge but as a source of opportunities they might not get at home.

"Having one or two years on your resume of China experiences is only going to help you back at headquarters in the United States or if you apply for business schools," said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.

A 28-year-old former London banker took a job a year ago with a Chinese private equity firm after the crisis devastated his industry at home. He said that even though he spoke no Chinese, his experience and contacts made him a sought-after asset in China, a market that he said offers "a much faster route to a top-level position."

"I actually earn more out here," said the banker, who asked not to be identified by name at his Chinese employer's request. "And the hours are much shorter."

Konstantin Schamber, a 27-year-old German, passed up possible jobs at home to become business manager for a Beijing law firm, where he is the only foreign employee.

"I believe China is the same place as the United States used to be in the 1930s that attracts a lot of people who'd like to have either money or career opportunities," Schamber said.

Job hunters from other Asian countries also are looking to China.

An Kwang-jin, a 30-year-old South Korean photographer, has worked as a freelancer for a year in the eastern city of Qingdao. He said China offered more opportunities as South Korea struggles with a sluggish economy.

Still, foreigners will face more competition from a rising number of educated, English-speaking young Chinese, some of them returning from the West with work experience, Rein said.

"You have a lot of Chinese from top universities who are making $500-$600 a month," Rein said. "Making a case that you are much better than they are is very hard."

Zhaopin.com and cn.yahoo.com have sponsored human resource experts to analyze China's job market in 2010 on the basis of trends in China's economic development. Job hunters may wish to use this as a reference.

Position: On-site interpreter

Annual salary: 400,000 yuan

On-site interpreters have been labeled as the most desirable professional in the 21st century. As China adopts more international standards, economic exchanges with the outside world and international activities in China are increasing. This has resulted in an urgent demand for more on-site interpreters.

An on-site interpreter's salary depends on their work hours. Typical pay is 4,000—8,000 yuan per hour. According to information, an increasing number of large foreign enterprises will set up branches in China and Beijing in the next 4 years, and on-site interpreters will enjoy steadily increasing salaries.

Position: logistics engineer

Annual salary: 100,000 yuan at present

According to statistics released by relevant Chinese institutions, demand for logistics personnel is expanding sharply. At present, China faces a shortage of 6 million logistics personnel. Statistics also show that many logistics engineers were previously engaged in other work and very few have received professional training.

At present, only 21 percent of China's logistics professionals have university education. According to information, Shell Group offers between 6,000 and 8,000 yuan per month to fresh graduates the company employs in China.

Reporters learned that the industry will grow significantly in the next year. "At present, the basic annual salary of a logistics professional is 70,000 yuan. As the world's energy resources are shrinking, relevant Chinese professionals may receive higher salaries in four years."

Position: Environmental engineer

Annual salary: 80,000 — 100,000 yuan

Statistics show that there are only 130,000 people specializing in environmental protection in China, including 80,000 technicians. Judging from the number of environmental protection personnel in developed countries, China now needs 420,000 environmental engineers.

According to industry experts, the monthly salary of a park or garden designer, or a landscape gardener is about 7,000—8,000 yuan. With the development of China's real estate industry, the annual income of an environmental engineer will reach between 80,000 and 100,000 yuan next year.

Position: 3G engineer

Annual Salary: from 150,000 — 200,000 yuan

According to statistics released by CCW Research, China has a shortage of more than 500,000 3G professionals.

Due to the serious shortage of 3G personnel, the basic annual salary of a 3G engineer will reach between 150,000 and 200,000 yuan in 4 years.

According to Kong.net, some trends indicate that the annual salary of personnel specializing in wireless value-added services who have 2.5G technology skills is about 100,000 yuan. The salary of these individuals will certainly increase when the actual deployment of 3G technology becomes a reality.

Position: Network media professional

Annual salary: 100,000 — 120,000 yuan

Industry experts revealed that the monthly salary for a website editor currently stands at about 5,000 yuan while the salary for a manager is between 8,000 and 10,000 yuan.

"When the network media industry is able to reap a higher advertising revenue in four years time, the salary of relevant professionals will inevitably rise." This editor is quite confident about this industry.

According to this editor's estimation, the annual income for a network media professional should reach between 100,000 and 120,000 yuan in the future.

Position: Network architect

Annual salary: 100,000 — 200,000 yuan

According to zhaopin.com, the basic annual salary for a network architect who has just graduated from university and has no social experience is 80,000 yuan.

As Chinese consumers demand better network architecture services ranging from network construction to network use, and advice on work flow and resource strategy, network architects will earn more in the future.

Position: Actuary

Annual salary: 120,000 — 150,000 yuan

According to statistics released by relevant Chinese institutions, less than 10 Chinese actuaries have been accredited by the international insurance community.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's unemployment was unchanged at 5.4 percent between June and August this year, official data showed Thursday, as economic uncertainty meant employers remained cautious about hiring.

The seasonally adjusted rate has remained the same since the April-June period.

The number of jobless increased by around 3,000 to 216,800 in the three months ending August from the May-July period, while the workforce declined by around 6,900 to 3,712,000, according to the Census and Statistics Department.

The near-term outlook will depend a lot on the pace of job creation in the economy relative to that in the labour supply, Matthew Cheung, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, said in a statement.

'As the pace of business growth remains uncertain, employers are generally cautious in hiring new hands at this point in time,' he said.

'Coupled with the relatively slow absorption of newcomers, including fresh graduates and school leavers into the labour market this year, the unemployment rate is expected to remain high in the near term.'

As job opportunities increase for migrant workers, companies are finding it hard to hire more workers they need. In addition, some migrant workers have chosen to stay home to develop new careers.

About 40 companies were on hand at a job fair in Zhuhai. In a complete turnaround from the past, many companies are feeling great pressure to hire enough workers.

Yuan Weiying, Zhuhai Fine Union FPC Co. said "We are short by 100 workers now. It's hard to hire a worker. We sent out a lot of hiring information to some places, but we are still unable to find one. Our current workers can not meet the production requirements."

Some companies began to show signs of an economic rebound with an increase of orders as of July. This triggered a greater demand for labor. A significant shortage of workers emerged in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions. Statistics show that the shortage of workers in Chongqing city has exceeded 30,000.

One employer said "In the past, 20 to 30 people would immediately reply as soon as we posted hiring information. But now, there is no one. We needed to hire 10 to 20 workers this time, but we only hired one person."

Because of the economic rebound, company job postings have jumped by 20 percent from the same period last year. The workers' wages have also gone up by 10 percent.

When the crisis hit last year, a lot of migrant workers from Liaoning province returned home following a reduction to their income. Most of them attended local training. A year later, about 60 percent of migrant workers in the province were re-employed at home, with some even starting their own businesses.

Wang Junjie, Manager of Shenyang Fulanerte Garment Factory said "Our income shrank a lot because of the global financial crisis. So I decided to come back to create my own business. With the help of my friend, I took part in a technician training class. I learned a lot from the class. Later, I found a small-sized processing factory."

Since the crisis erupted, the local government in Liaoning province set up training classes to help workers upgrade their knowledge and skills. So far, about 170,000 workers have accepted training throughout the province.

Summer used to be a slow season for the job market, but things are different this year. Many companies that froze hiring since the financial crisis are recruiting again. Zhou Xiaoye has a story from Zhejiang Province in east China.

At this provincial job fair, a flooring manufacturer is collecting resumés.

The company chief says it's the first time they're recruiting since the economic downturn began.

Flooring manufacturer Rao Xianping said, "We're an export company, and we've been hit hard by the crisis. However demand is coming back now, so we need to recruit lots of staff, in every subsidiary company."

Besides the increase in export orders, the company is also optimistic about the domestic market.

Rao Xianping said, "The company has invested a lot in the domestic market, so we badly need employees in the sales and production sectors."

Another company says their biggest headache is the lack of staff to handle foreign trade.

Company recruiter Hu Ronghui said, "We'll send employees overseas as long as we recruit. "

This isn't an exceptional case. This job fair used to have more than 20 companies, but this year there are over a hundred.

Wang Changjiang, deputy firector of Zhejiang Laboe Exchange Center, said, "Starting from this May, there's been a surge in job opportunities. Through July, the number of employers increased by 30 percent, while jobs increased by 4 percent.

Jobs in textiles, electronics, machinery have increased the most, while the most wanted vacancies are for sales people and technicians.

Now is traditionally the low season for recruiting migrant workers in the coastal areas where most exported goods are produced. But this year the peak season has continued and some manufacturers have found it hard to find workers.

In a labor market in Zhuhai, a southern coastal city in China, companies are trying to find the migrant workers they need, but very few can get enough.

One recruiter said "We only needed 50 to 60 workers this time last year. But we have hired 100 people this year, and we still need 200 more. "

According to data from Zhuhai's human resource center, labor demand in the city for July and August increased 100 percent over the same period last year. However, the firms got only 20 percent migrant workers they needed.

Chen Xianfeng, Department Director of Zhuhai Human Resources Center said "All of our space has been used and still more is needed."

In Nanjing, east China, migrant workers are also hard to find. They have started to be more picky about which jobs they take.

One migrant worker said "I want to have a better job with a higher salary and free accommodation."

One migrant worker said "I want a job with less hours and a factory that is easy to get to."

Analysts say the new situation in the labor market is a result of more orders for manufacturers. In addition, some migrant workers find it easier and more comfortable to work locally. They are now able to find jobs in their hometowns with salaries they can accept. And so, some manufacturers are starting to transfer some of their production from coastal areas to inland locations.

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.

TAIWAN'S jobless rate hit a record high of 6.1 percent in July, authorities said yesterday, as new graduates entered the job market and started to look for work amid a recession.

A total of 663,000 people were unemployed, up from 647,000 in June. It was the third straight month Taiwan's unemployment rate hit a record high.

The loss of temporary jobs was another factor for rising unemployment, authorities said.

Taiwan's economy contracted 7.5 percent in the second quarter, and the government has predicted gross domestic product to shrink 4 percent this year.

A devastating typhoon this month has resulted in more than US$2 billion in farm and property damage, but its impact on the economy will be offset by huge government reconstruction spending, officials said.

Taiwan approved a NT$100 billion (US$3 billion) rebuilding fund to be spent over the next three years.

BEIJING — Shanghai and Beijing are becoming new lands of opportunity for recent American college graduates who face unemployment nearing double digits at home.

Even those with limited or no knowledge of Chinese are heeding the call. They are lured by China’s surging economy, the lower cost of living and a chance to bypass some of the dues-paying that is common to first jobs in the United States.

“I’ve seen a surge of young people coming to work in China over the last few years,” said Jack Perkowski, founder of Asimco Technologies, one of the largest automotive parts companies in China.

“When I came over to China in 1994, that was the first wave of Americans coming to China,” he said. “These young people are part of this big second wave.”

One of those in the latest wave is Joshua Arjuna Stephens, who graduated from Wesleyan University in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in American studies. Two years ago, he decided to take a temporary summer position in Shanghai with China Prep, an educational travel company.

“I didn’t know anything about China,” said Mr. Stephens, who worked on market research and program development. “People thought I was nuts to go not speaking the language, but I wanted to do something off the beaten track.”

Two years later, after stints in the nonprofit sector and at a large public relations firm in Beijing, he is highly proficient in Mandarin and works as a manager for XPD Media, a social media company based in Beijing that makes online games.

Jonathan Woetzel, a partner with McKinsey & Company in Shanghai who has lived in China since the mid-1980s, says that compared with just a few years ago, he was seeing more young Americans arriving in China to be part of an entrepreneurial boom. “There’s a lot of experimentation going on in China right now, particularly in the energy sphere, and when people are young they are willing to come and try something new,” he said.

And the Chinese economy is more hospitable for both entrepreneurs and job seekers, with a gross domestic product that rose 7.9 percent in the most recent quarter compared with the period a year earlier. Unemployment in urban areas is 4.3 percent, according to government data.

Grace Hsieh, president of the Yale Club in Beijing and a 2007 graduate, says she has seen a rise in the number of Yale graduates who have come to work in Beijing since she arrived in China two years ago. She is working as an account executive in Beijing for Hill & Knowlton, the public relations company.

Sarabeth Berman, a 2006 graduate of Barnard College with a major in urban studies, initially arrived in Beijing at the age of 23 to take a job that would have been difficult for a person her age to land in the United States: program director at BeijingDance/LDTX, the first modern dance company in China to be founded independently of the government.

Ms. Berman said she was hired for her familiarity with Western modern dance rather than a knowledge of China. “Despite my lack of language skills and the fact that I had no experience working in China, I was given the opportunity to manage the touring, international projects, and produce and program our annual Beijing Dance Festival.”

After two years of living and working in China, Ms. Berman is proficient in Mandarin. She travels throughout China, Europe and the United States with the dance company.

Willy Tsao, the artistic director of BeijingDance/LDTX, said he had hired Ms. Berman because of her ability to make connections beyond China. “I needed someone who was capable of communicating with the Western world.”

Another dynamic in the hiring process, Mr. Tsao says, is that Westerners can often bring skills that are harder to find among the Chinese.

“Sarabeth is always taking initiative and thinking what we can do,” he said, “while I think the more standard Chinese approach is to take orders.” He says the difference is rooted in the educational system. “In Chinese schools students are encouraged to be quiet and less outspoken; it fosters a culture of listening more than initiating.”

Mr. Perkowski, who spent almost 20 years on Wall Street before heading to China, says many Chinese companies are looking to hire native English speakers to help them navigate the American market.

“I’m working with a company right now that wants me to help them find young American professionals who can be their liaisons to the U.S.,” he said. “They want people who understand the social and cultural nuances of the West.”

Skip to next paragraph Mr. Perkowski’s latest venture, JFP Holdings, a merchant bank based in Beijing, has not posted any job openings, but has received more than 60 résumés; a third are from young people in the United States who want to come work in China, he said.

Mick Zomnir, 20, a soon-to-be junior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is working as a summer intern for JFP. “As things have gotten more difficult in the U.S., I started to think about opportunities elsewhere,” he said. He does not speak Chinese but says he will begin studying Mandarin when he returns to M.I.T. in the fall.

A big draw of working in China, many young people say, is that they feel it allows them to skip a rung or two on the career ladder.

Ms. Berman said: “There is no doubt that China is an awesome place to jump-start your career. Back in the U.S., I would be intern No. 3 at some company or selling tickets at Lincoln Center.”

For others, like Jason Misium, 23, China has solved the cash flow problem of starting a business. After graduating with a degree in biology from Harvard in 2008, Mr. Misium came to China to study the language. Then, with a friend, Matthew Young, he started Sophos Academic Group, an academic consulting firm that works with Chinese students who want to study in the United States.

“It’s China’s fault that I’m still here,” he said. “It’s just so cheap to start a business.” It cost him the equivalent of $12,000, which he had in savings, he said.

Among many young Americans, the China exit strategy is a common topic of conversation. Mr. Stephens, Ms. Berman and Mr. Misium all said they were planning to return to the United States eventually.

Mr. Woetzel of McKinsey said work experience in China was not an automatic ticket to a great job back home. He said it was not a marker in the same way an Ivy League education: “The mere fact of just showing up and working in China and speaking Chinese is not enough.”

That said, Mr. Woetzel added, someone who has been able to make a mark in China is a valuable hire.

“At McKinsey, we are looking for people who have demonstrated leadership,” he said, “and working in a context like China builds character, requires you to be a lot more entrepreneurial and forces you to innovate.”

Hong Kong has reported a 5.4 percent unemployment rate between May and July, up from 3.3% in April to June.

Although it's a jump, authorities say it's better than expected, and the labor market is stable. The 5.4 percent rate means the city has 10 thousand more jobless in the three months, taking the total above 210 thousand.

Local government says the figure is better than expected. Most job losses during the period have been in decorating, finance and the entertainment sector. The unemployment rate in the construction industry is the most severe, at 11.1 percent, but it's lower than the previous month.

Unemployment in the finance sector has also fallen a little to 2.4 percent. Authorities said companies have made great efforts to provide more job opportunities in the past few months.

At present, China's employment situation remains stable and some positive changes have emerged. Human Resources and Social Security Minister Yin Weimin said that he is confident that all the current annual employment targets will be achieved.

In the first seven months of 2009, China created 6.66 million new urban jobs, 970,000 of which were created in July. In this period, 3.15 million laid-off workers were re-employed and 930,000 people facing employment difficulties found jobs, which is overall better than expected.

At the beginning of 2009, China set employment targets requiring that 9 million new urban jobs be created over the year and registered unemployment rate be controlled below 4.6 percent. In the first seven months, the number of newly-created jobs has already accounted for 74 percent of the target, and the registered unemployment rate stood at 4.3 percent as of the end of second quarter, curbing the upward momentum which has existed since the end of last year. The number of monthly newly-created jobs in cities and towns has basically stabilized since the second quarter.

The monthly increment of about one million employment opportunities is essentially maintaining the same level as that recorded before the outbreak of the international financial crisis. This indicates that China's employment has gradually bottomed out.

Yin said that in order to achieve the annual employment target, in addition to continuing to boost employment by closely integrating the expansion of domestic demand with economic development, implementing more active employment policies and strengthening training will also improve employability. Priority should also be given to promoting the tertiary industry and small and medium-sized enterprises to stimulate employment.

However, according to overall analysis, the current conflict between labor force oversupply and shrinking demand is still acute. According to the latest estimates from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS), there will be over 24 million people in need of employment in 2009. "If calculated on the basis of an eight percent economic growth rate, only about 12 million new jobs can be provided after a whole year's economic growth. The gap between supply and demand will further widen compared to that of 2008," said an MHRSS official.

Samsung Securities Co. is hiring 50 people in Hong Kong by the end of this year. According to Bloomberg, the South Korean firm is just launching an office in Hong Kong to expand its services for capital raising, acquisitions, stock trading and capital management.

Samsung Securities is also expanding to begin operations in China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and India through internal growth, partnerships and M&A. In fact it may consider a joint venture in China in order to begin operations there in two or three years, according to the report.

RECRUITMENT at Microsoft's largest research centre outside the US will be flat next year, a senior company executive said.

Microsoft China employs around 3500 research and development staff -- more than a five-fold growth since 2005.

The work done at the China research lab is for global consumption; some of its more recent efforts can be found in Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7.

According to Ya-Qin Zhang, Microsoft corporate vice-president and chairman of its Beijing-based R&D group, staffing levels are adequate at the moment.

"In 2005 we had about 600 people in R&D in China. Now we're at 3500 researchers and engineers but next year hiring will be flat," Dr Zhang said.

The Beijing R&D group is divided into three streams -- the product group works on existing products, incubation looks at next-generation products, and research has an eye on future products.

"The product team has the highest number of staff at around 80 per cent, while product and incubation have 10 per cent each."

Dr Zhang's research staff were responsible for a few features in Windows 7, including systems recovery and diagnosis, speech technology and multi-touch.

Microsoft US has the largest research and development group within the company, employing around 30,000 people.

Dr Zhang singled out smart devices, cloud computing, natural language, search and graphics as focus areas for the R&D group.

"We're looking at how we can extend the capabilities of a computer and put in more intelligence in devices," he said. "Smart sensors would be one area that we will see a lot of work in.

"But I personally like to keep it simple ... technology should be simple, not complex," he said, citing that as the reason why he doesn't use a touchpad smart phone.

He dismissed backers of an all-or-nothing approach to cloud computing, saying most critics tend to forget the client's role in the equation.

"I'm against talk that everything sits in the cloud and the client isn't important. The two work hand in hand -- cloud and client. How information is accessed is very important."

Microsoft is pushing its Software-plus-Services vision for both public and private clouds.

The software giant increased its global R&D budget by $US1 billion to $US9bn this year, chief operating officer Kevin Turner said during a visit to Sydney in April.

Dr Zhang was in Sydney to officially open the National ICT Australia's Techfest09 event yesterday; he has rejoined Nicta's International Advisory Group after a brief hiatus.

Dr Zhang commended Nicta for the high standard of research being conducted and said both organisations shared the same vision.

"I'm excited to see that Nicta and Microsoft share the same model of taking risks," he said.

At Techfest09, Nicta unveiled a new software component dubbed sel4 that ensures an operating system will "never" crash has been developed in Australia. It has the potential to earn billions of dollars in royalties.

A Chinese official says the government is writing up a document to more effectively regulate State-owned enterprises (SOEs) as well as executives' salaries.

Hu Xiaoyi, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security said the document would be released in the near future during an Aug. 4 press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

Hu said two steps would be taken to regulate SOE executives' salaries. The government will firstly regulate the salaries of SOE executives in central enterprises and then instruct local governments on setting the salaries of those executives running local companies.?

"Five principles are used to formulate this document," Hu explained. "We should combine market regulation with government supervision; strike a balance between short-term and long-term financial incentives for their achievements; improve salary regulations; provide insurance for employees; and coordinate salary increases for executives of SOEs and for employees."

China saw a slight increase in jobs in the second quarter while its urban unemployment rate stayed at 4.3 percent, bucking a global shrinking job market, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said Friday.

From February to June, the number of jobs grew by 0.13 percent over the previous quarter (October 08 - January 09), according to a ministry survey of more than 513 major companies in five provinces.

"It is a very slight but very positive change," ministry spokesman Yin Chengji said.

The number of jobs fell by 8.05 percent between October and January, but the government's stimulus package helped stem urban unemployment after two consecutive increases since the fourth quarter last year, he said.

Due to the global economic slowdown, the jobless rate rose to 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter last year - the first increase in five years, before hitting 4.3 percent in the first quarter of this year.

The ministry aims to keep the unemployment rate below 4.6 percent this year, which would still make it the highest level of unemployment since 1980.

The jobless rate does not include the country's 230 million migrant workers, who make up the main workforce in the labor-intensive industries of the coastal regions.
Officials from the National Bureau of Statistics had earlier said that more rural migrant workers found jobs in cities in the second quarter, up by nearly 4 million from the first quarter.

"The employment situation has been stabilizing after the rebound in the first quarter," Yin said. "It is better than expected."

The ministry has achieved more than half of its goals in the past six months, creating jobs for 5.69 million new urban workers, 2.71 million laid-off workers, and 790,000 people who were facing difficulties finding work, officials said.

This year, the ministry aims to create jobs for 9 million new urban workers, 5 million laid-off workers and 1 million others encountering difficulty finding work.

Six talents were selected to be vice-presidents of five subsidiaries under Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) on August 5. This marks the successful conclusion of AVIC's global recruitment drive to find top executives.

It is the first time for Chinese security enterprises to seek high level executives worldwide. All of the jobs were open to foreigners and the search was not limited to China-born managers. The recruitment drive was launched on Feb. 26, 2009 and around one thousand applicants from over twenty countries and regions had signed up.

According to the company, most of the six executives had worked for large scale state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and governments before. As all of the jobs will involve dealing with some of the corporation's restricted information, background checks will be performed on them. They are also asked to sign confidentiality agreements.

AVIC is the first Chinese aerospace manufacturer and security company listed in the Fortune Global 500, ranking 426 in this year's list released on July 8.

AVIC is the originator of AVIC Commercial Aircraft Engine Company, which will engage in research, design, production, sales, maintenance, service and technological consulting for jet engines and related products. AVIC holds a 40 percent stake in this new company.

Jobs are once again becoming available in China's major cities, and migrant workers are returning in droves after last year's exodus brought on by the global financial crisis.

The Pearl Delta, which has traditionally depended on migrant workers, was badly hit by the global financial crisis last year. Many enterprises eliminated jobs, and migrant workers were forced to return to their home provinces. But now, the employment picture has greatly improved, and workers are returning.

Gui Linchan, Manager of Great Wall Computer, Shenzhen said "We hired more workers recently compared to last year. Since February, we hired six to seven hundred."

In the first half of the year, urban employment stopped falling and began to rise, while 95 percent of the migrant workers who returned home are now coming back to the cities and planning to find work.

Yin Chengji, Spokesman of Ministry of Human Resources & Social Security said "In the fourth quarter of last year, China's urban employment fell sharply. But it soon recovered in the first quarter of this year, and stabilized in the second quarter. We think that the general employment situation is better than expected."

The increase of jobs is directly linked to the four trillion yuan stimulus package that the government launched at the end of 2008. It is also attributable to preferential policies, including promotions for home appliances purchases in rural areas and an increase in tax rebates.

By Susan Fenton

HONG KONG, July 9 (Reuters) - Job prospects for executives in Asia have improved in the past three months as employers expect business to pick up later in the year, though they are still cautious about adding headcount, a quarterly survey showed on Thursday.

Hiring expectations in Singapore rose in the past three months for the first time since early 2007 and in Hong Kong increased for the first time since early last year.

Still, only 26 percent of Singapore employers plan to take on staff in the next three months, up from 20 percent last quarter, and in Hong Kong just 22 percent expect to be recruiting, up from 14 percent.

In China, only 27 percent of respondents said they would be hiring, down slightly from 30 percent in the previous quarter. However, recent economic data suggest the world's third-biggest economy is accelerating and 34 percent of companies in the manufacturing and industrial sector aim to take on staff this quarter, up from 21 percent last quarter.

The survey previously covered Japan but Hudson, part of Chicago-based Chicago-based Hudson Highland Group ( HHGP - news - people ) Inc, said it closed its Japan operation in April and would no longer include the country in its quarterly surveys.

The government in Shenzhen has lowered the income benchmarks for the first time since 1999 to soften the impact of the financial crisis on local companies.

The municipal labor authority issues the income benchmarks annually to serve as a reference for 566 types of jobs in the city.

The highest-level and medium-level benchmarks stand at 23,700 yuan ($3,470) and 2,460 yuan per month, respectively, decreasing by 8.5 percent and 3.9 percent each from last year.

However, the low-level income benchmark gained a 7 percent year-on-year rise this year to 1,102 yuan per month, which labor officials said should be attributed to the government's measures to protect low-income laborers.

"Our payment adjustment policy is to control the high-income group, expand the medium-income group and protect the low-income group. It's a way to narrow down the income gaps," said Wu Liyong, director of the income division of Shenzhen Labor and Social Securities Department.

Workers are encouraged to use the benchmark when negotiating their wage with employers.

Last year, the official surveys showed that the lowest-level salaries on average were 25 times less than the highest salaries. This year, surveys showed that gap has narrowed to 21.5.

The authority also recorded the biggest income gap in the financial industry, including security houses, insurance companies and banks, where the highest-paid person could be earning 80 times what the lowest-paid person earns.

Several residents polled by China Daily yesterday in different industries expressed their concerns about salaries shrinking this year.
"Possible pay raise this year? Are you kidding? I would feel relief if no pay cut occurs," said Lin Zhen, an accountant working for a leading computer manufacturer.

Liu Yue, a manager at a State-owned bank, said some of her benefits have been greatly cut since early this year, including money for travel and major public holidays.

"Our salaries have been increased over the past few years given the relatively low level in the industry, but I still feel the total wage was reduced this year. I learned that the salary cut was even bigger in banks that have offered top payment in the industry," Liu told China Daily.

Piao Ye, a human resources manager at a beauty salon, said the income for the entry-level workers has not been increased as much as the government indicates.

"The company provides dormitories to them and they could get 1,000 to 1,500 yuan a month, which could just maintain a very simple life in the city with high consumption index," she said.

Officials at the labor authority said they are not making plans to further increase the minimum level this year.

Employment in China's southeastern regions is rising steadily. Due to the increasing orders, many enterprises are even suffering a shortage of workers.

Employment in China's southeastern regions is rising steadily. Due
to the increasing orders, many enterprises are even suffering a
shortage of workers.

Figures show the jobless rate in China's Pearl River Delta region has eased since May. Employee demand for Guangzhou and Dongguan increased 15 percent in May, and 10 percent in June. Shenzhen had its first employee shortage in April, and some job seekers have received more than two company offers.

Cai Huanxing, Inspector of Shenzhen Labor & Social Sec. Bureau said "Most of the job offers come from the machinery and manufacturing sectors. Based on our estimates, Shenzhen is short of 100,000 workers right now."

Although the demand for employees is rising, many job seekers are still holding a "wait and see? attitude. About 600,000 migrant workers have left China's industrial heartland, as the world economic crisis hits the region. That's why companies in the Pearl River Delta region are suffering recruitment difficulties.

Human Resourves Rep. of Shenzhen Company said "We need 300 workers. But we have actually only 3 people. Obviously that number is way below our target."

Beijing Subway announced Monday it would more than double its workforce with an extra 20,000 staff as its operations expand to 561 kilometers by 2015.

The city had eight subway lines, totaling 200 km and hauling 4 million passengers daily, already in service, said the company in a statement on its website.

Beijing Subway has 16,000 people on its payroll, 10 percent of whom have worked on the subway for less than a year.

The company said the municipal government had been increasing investment in building training establishments and teaching skills to deal with the labor shortage.

China is under pressure to find jobs for 6.1 million college students graduating this summer. Efforts from various governments and colleges have had limited success. The Ministry of Education says by July the 1st, 4.15 million, or 68 percent of new graduates have landed job.

China is under pressure to find jobs for 6.1 million college students
graduating this summer.

The number of college students graduating this year increased by 440-thousand, from 5.7 million last year. So far, the employment rate is about the same compared to that of a year ago.

To cope with the pressure of finding jobs for fresh graduates, China has adopted polices to increase employment opportunities.

The Ministry of Education launched a teacher recruitment plan in rural areas, which absorbed 200- thousand graduates. 120-thousand graduates have put their name on the lists to become a soldier in the army, and another 200-thousand graduates have signed contracts with outsourcing enterprises under the program launched by the commerce and education ministries. Meanwhile, 120-thousand graduates will go to rural areas or less-developed western regions to start their career.

Zhang Haoming, Deputy Director of Department of University Students' Affairs of Ministry of Education said "College graduates who haven't landed jobs can contact local human resources and social security departments. They can have training, guidance and internships offered by them to find a job as soon as possible."

The Ministry of Education is vowing to coordinate efforts with other departments concerned to find jobs for 70 percent of graduates by September the 1st.

Chinese employment service providers said domestic firms have started a fresh round of hiring, especially for management level position, as part of the efforts to cash in on the economic recovery, but most of these firms are still finding it hard to get the right candidates.

Three industries -- real estate, hi-tech and retailing -- are at the forefront of the current round of hiring, according to Wednesday's China Daily.

Wang Shangfeng, general manager of Gold Elite, a major Chinese job hunter, was quoted as saying the past few months have been the worst ever for the company. Demand (from clients) for new labor shrank sharply since the financial crisis broke out. Some private companies were watching while others, especially international companies, stopped hiring.

The company's business has improved since early June. Like GoldElite, DoWelljoin Hunter, another employment service provider, also sees clients back for new hires last month. Its business has grown by 40 percent last month compared with the previous months. The growth rate was even higher than a year earlier.

However, companies in China are still finding it difficult to get the right candidates for the wanted positions, said a survey by Manpower.

According to the survey, 15 percent of the employers are struggling to fill up positions. The top three jobs that they are having difficulties to fill up this year are technicians, management or executives and sales representatives.

China will launch a nationwide week-long online job fair starting Saturday. Information will be collected and posted on several websites. They include the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National College Grad Employment Service Platform, and the China Labor Market.

Fewer than half of this year's college graduates have found jobs, due to the global downturn.

The target employment rate for graduates is 80 percent by the end of August.

China's newly employed workers dropped again in April after rebounding in the first quarter. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has promised to use the unemployment insurance fund to stabilize the situation.

New employment in urban areas in April dropped more than 10 percent in eastern regions. In Shanghai, the decline reached 45 percent, in Fujian province, 23 percent.

The registered urban unemployment rate hit just over 4 percent, the highest in four years. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security says it will use 30 to 40 billion yuan in the unemployment insurance fund to stabilize employment.

Zuo Chunwen, dept. director of Ministry of HR& Social Security, "we will move forward our frontier of unemployment insurance. It used to be given to people who lost their jobs. We will now use it to keep workers employed."

China's unemployment insurance fund reached 131 billion yuan at the end of last year. The system covered 124 million people. The Ministry says it will use the fund to encourage enterprises to retain positions through training, adjusted working hours, and negotiating salaries.

The Ministry says local governments should launch policies to both increase and stabilize jobs. The focus should be on graduates, search services and essential training.

The employment situation across China has begun to show signs of recovery thanks to stimulus policies initiated by the central government. Especially those policies aimed at ensuring growth and employment.

New figures show the major economic index in Shenzhen is continuing to climb. They also show that native brand enterprises such as Huawei and Zhongxin Communication have maintained over 20 percent growth between January and April. And the increase in orders has directly stimulated employment demand. The Shenzhen Labor department reported that the job supply and demand ratio in January was 0.74. But in May, that ratio expanded to just over 1.08, slightly easing the situation.

Lai Yuewen, Employment Dept. Shenzhen Labor & Social Security, says, "we believe the warming-up of the human resources market in April and May shows that our economy in the city is getting rid of the stress, gradually brought upon by the global financial crisis."

Social networking Web site MySpace will cut its staff by about 30 percent so as "to return to an environment of innovation," company executives confirmed on Tuesday.

The job cuts will affect about 425 employees across all its U.S. divisions, the company said.

The company took the move after it had been steadily losing ground to rival Facebook, MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said.

"Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," said Van Natta.

"I understand that these changes are painful for many," he said." They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product."

MySpace's corporate offices are based in Beverly Hills near downtown Los Angeles.

Jonathan Miller, an executive with parent company News Corp., said MySpace "grew too big considering the realities of today's marketplace."

"I believe this restructuring will help MySpace operate much more effectively both structurally and financially moving forward," he said. "I am confident in MySpace's next phase under the leadership of Owen and his team."

The job cuts will leave MySpace with about 1,000 domestic employees.

College graduates in China have sharply lowered their salary expectations to something between 2,000 to 3,000 yuan per month for their first jobs after graduation, according to a latest survey on the current employment situation, Beijing Evening News reported on June 17.

This salary expectation drop was almost half from the previous 4,000 to 5,000 yuan per-month salaries college graduates ever foresaw last year.

The survey, conducted by Zhilian Recruiting, a major man-hunting company in China, questioned 15,000 students graduating from college in 2009.

According to the survey, some 45 percent of undergraduates expect salaries of 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a month, but 26 percent of postgraduates think that rate acceptable. Meanwhile, more postgraduates, 34 percent, are eyeing 3,000 to 4,000 yuan per-month salaries, though. PhD graduates of course expect more, with 44 percent counting on at least 5,000 yuan per month.

Xiao Fang, a postgraduate from a prestigious university said she was experiencing a tough time in the job market and had to bring down her monthly salary expectations. After being told her 5,000 yuan baseline was impossible, she reduced her expectations to something about 4,500 yuan.

About 6.11 million students are expected to flux into the job market this year, and one million left from last year are still looking for jobs. To make the situation worse, more jobs are being axed due to the lingering economic slowdown. In general, students' chances of getting employed have been hard hit by the global slump.

Experts say graduates are more pragmatic when they seek jobs at the moement. They suggest graduates integrate their job expectations with the recent national stimulus packages. Rather than setting their hearts on prestigious firms in big cities, they should consider other options, like working in rural villages.

For the first time that Taiwan students graduating from mainland universities are being allowed to work in state-owned enterprises.

The Fujian provincial government has issued a notice saying these students may apply for positions in state-owned enterprises. They will enjoy same salaries and benefits as mainland students.

So far, more than 1,000 universities on the mainland have accepted 30 thousand Taiwan students. Ten thousand remain in class. Most of them are in Fujian, Guangdong, Beijing and Shanghai.

EMPLOYMENT on China's mainland for the third quarter will cool to a five-quarter low due to the impact of the global economic downturn, according to a quarterly survey released by Manpower Inc yesterday.

But expectations are falling more slowly than the previous quarter, thanks to the government's fiscal stimulus package, said the report, based on interviews with 4,026 employers on the mainland.

Companies in the steel, automobile, finance and transport industries were likely to hire more employees in the coming months, in response to industry adjustments and revitalization plans issued by the State Council, the report said.

"There were some optimistic signs. But whether confidence in the whole labor market can be lifted depends on how the economy changes in the second half of this year," said Wu Ruoxuan, Manpower Greater China's managing director.

Eleven percent of HR respondents surveyed in 13 cities said they will expand head counts, while 9 percent said they would cut staff.

The report claimed 66 percent of employers said they would maintain current staffing plans - 10 percent higher than the previous quarter.

"The fact that more companies expect to keep current staff levels rather than cut them shows market confidence is becoming more stable," said Zhu Yijuan, from Manpower.

Hiring in the service industry was the most robust. Finance and insurance, mining and construction and the transport industries also showed stronger hiring prospects compared to the previous quarter, but all had declined from the same period last year, the report said.

Pharmaceutical company Lilly China will double its staff to 2,000 this year even as experts debate whether the economy has bottomed out.

"A large portion of the hires are in sales and distribution as we expect to do a better job reaching patients in central and western areas of China," David Ricks, Lilly China president, told China Business Weekly late last month.

But he added Lilly China is growing in all aspects, so new employees will be needed in virtually every function from manufacturing and R&D to accounting and operations.

Lilly China is not the only pharmaceutical firm expanding recruitment in China even as global workforce numbers are stagnant or even dropping.

Swiss drug maker Novartis Pharmaceuticals expects to increase its 2,700 employees in China by 20 percent each year until at least 2013. The bulk of the new positions will be in sales, according to CEO Joseph Jimenez.

Amy Huang, vice-president and China director of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said the company does not intend to cut its budget for China this year - instead it will invest more in developing new medicines and vaccines, including funds for expansion of human resources related to R&D. The UK-headquartered company announced in February it will cut 6,000 jobs this year globally.

The world's second-largest generic medicine company Sandoz said it will recruit more people in China, not only in sales and manufacturing, but also managerial talent.

"The reason for the workforce enhancement in China is rapid expansion of these drug companies here," said Peng Haizhu, pharmaceutical analyst of Huatai Securities.

Year-on-year sales of Lilly China grew around 30 percent in 2008, while its global business rose 9 percent. GSK achieved a 12 percent growth in sales in emerging markets.

China outperformed other emerging markets with a 22 percent increase in sales as global numbers fell by 3 percent. Sales by Novartis Pharmaceuticals in China jumped 29 percent year-on-year to 3.3 billion yuan in 2008, compared with its 6 percent global growth and the company is expecting a 30 percent rise in China this year. AstraZeneca's figures were 25 percent and 7 percent in China and the world respectively.

Best performers

"In any global company, different regional operations are competing with each other for limited resources, so the best performers will get more support from headquarters," said Wu Changqi, associate dean of Peking University's Guanghua School of Management. "So, it's understandable that the promising China branch can add workforce while other regions cut jobs."

As well, surging demand in China stimulated pharmaceuticals to build new facilities that create job opportunities for locals.

It is estimated that more than 200 million households in China will earn over 40,000 yuan a year by 2025, with spending on private healthcare and medicines by urban consumers expected to record double digit growth every year in the coming two decades, according to a report of PricewaterhouseCoopers, an industry assurance, tax and advisory services provider.

Eli Lilly, eyeing the market potential, has pledged to inject $100 million in China for R&D from 2008 to 2012. In February, Pfizer set up a $60 million manufacturing facility in northeast China's Dalian city, while Bayer announced plans to invest up to 100 million euros over the next five years for an R&D center in Beijing.

Peng pointed out that China's three-year 850 billion yuan medical system reform package that aims to provide more accessible and affordable healthcare to the country's 1.3 billion people provides new opportunities in smaller cities and rural areas, which in turn drives pharmaceuticals to recruit more employees to reach those regions.

Executives of foreign drug behemoths all admit that a large part of new recruits will be sales people who will be in charge of setting up distribution networks in China's western and central areas and in county-level hospitals.

"Qualified people specialized in this kind of work are not easy to get," said Peng, explaining that they should have pharmaceutical background, be familiar with medical systems and local cultures in underdeveloped areas - very different than in large cities - as well as have hard-working and easy-going personalities.

Ricks said campus recruitment is key to finding new employees who have a professional medical background. People who leave other sectors and turn to the pharmaceutical industry are also welcomed. Executive headhunting is used for managerial positions.

Peng of Huatai said finding and retaining talent is a real challenge for pharmaceutical companies because the number with medical backgrounds cannot keep pace with the surge of demand, resulting in ever-increasing competition among various companies.

Lilly China's Ricks estimated that turnover is as high as 35 to 50 percent in local drug firms and 20 to 30 percent in multinational companies. In Lilly China, the figure is 5 to 10 percent.

"In finding and retaining good and skilled people our strategy is to build from within," he said.

Peng attributed the relatively lower turnover to bigger salaries at multinationals.

"Multinationals are particularly attractive to R&D talent as their research facilities are usually world class and international communication is much more convenient and up to date."

Wu of Peking University said companies that make efforts to recruit new talent and provide a professional, ethical corporate culture are smart.

"They are accumulating high-level human resources and preparing for the coming recovery," he said, predicting that the emerging markets, including China, will still develop faster than developed economies when rising from the economic slowdown.

"Talent will be the most needed resource in the recovery - it is hard to cultivate in a short time," he added.

Beijing is working to entice some of the talented Chinese people working overseas to return home.

The municipal government has established a program to assist overseas Chinese who are under 55 years of age, have obtained a PhD overseas, and can work in Beijing for more than six months a year.

Professors in famous overseas universities and research institutions and those who are employed as senior managers in well-known multi-national companies are the key targets of the program.

Beijing's goal for 2009 is to attract between 30 and 50 of these types of people back from overseas.

University graduates who left school in 2008 are earning less money than their classmates did one year ago. That's according to a newly released Employment Report on China's university graduates. As CCTV reporter finds out, salaries for graduates from major universities fell at a steeper rate than graduates of vocational schools.

The report shows that graduates from major universities earn on average about 2,500 yuan a month. That's down 14 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, monthly salaries for graduates of non-major universities fell to about 2000 yuan, on average. That down 11 percent. And the monthly salary on average for vocational school graduates is 1,600 yuan. That's down only 5 percent.

Wang Boqing, professor of Southwestern Univ. of Finance & Economics, says, "when the economy is good, enterprises are willing to hire graduates from good universities. But when the economy is bad, they are more willing to hire students from ordinary schools to save costs."

The report also says for graduates with bachelor degrees, engineering and business management majors have the highest employment prospects. But graduates with majors in law and philosophy have the lowest employment rate. As for vocational schools, students focusing on resource exploration and mapping have the easiest time finding jobs. But students studying tourism and cultural administration find the most difficulty in securing jobs.

The employment report also shows that more students in Yunnan, Jinli, Ningxia, Shanxi and Xijiang are willing to start their own business. But students in Shanghai, Hainan, Jiangsu, Fujian and Beijing are less willing to become entrepreneurs. This suggests that finding a good job is still the top choice for most university graduates. They seem to choose to start their own businesses, only if they can NOT, first, find a job.

This is a key period for college graduates looking for jobs. China is facing a great challenge to ensure millions of graduates nationwide find employment amid the economic slowdown.

In the northeastern province of Jilin, a series of job fairs are helping to address the issue. 17-thousand jobs are on offer at this job fair alone, which is free to both recruiters and job seekers.

So far nearly 50-thousand college graduates have secured jobs in Jilin Province, but that is only one third of the province's total number of grads.

Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangdong Province, where many major universities are clustered, are encouraging graduate students to seek work in smaller cities where competition for jobs is not so severe.

The employment market in south China's major manufacturing hub of Shenzhen is heating up. According to the Shenzhen employment authority, the city requires 20-thousand more workers.

Workers are needed in sectors like printing, civil engineering, office maintenance, real estate and education.

Officials say the current labor shortage is due to both rising productivity of manufacturers and a massive return home of migrant workers in the last few months of 2008. But the employment situation has yet to return to its ideal past.

Before the global financial chaos there were 1.27 jobs available for every worker. Now that number has been reduced to only 1.04.