Recruiting in China

Bruno Masier, chairman of World Trade Point Federation, a not-for-profit organization helping trade, said he saw more companies, rather than institutions, appear at the China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services.

Maiser, who had attended all the CIFTIS, also the Beijing Fair, since its launch in 2012, told chinadaily.com.cn on Wednesday this indicated that real players are taking opportunities in the sector of trade in services.

He said the federation has brought 60 businesses from more than 40 countries to the fair and deals worth 120 billion yuan will be signed by the closing ceremony on June 1, according to a Beijing Daily report.

In addition to companies attending with help from global institutions, some specializing in traditional Chinese medicine also took the chance to showcase products or services.

Fan Kui, chairman of Hunan Hongyao biological Polytron Technologies Inc, set up late last year, said his company needs this platform to let people know what they can do.

Fan said his company has developed a cream, containing Chinese herb extracts which, according to clinical experiments, can help control blood sugar when applied to the skin. Fan said the product can be used in elderly care but it may take a year for people to know of its existence.

The Beijing Fair was launched by the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Municipal Government of Beijing in 2012 and has been held annually.

The days of rapid growth in China's real estate sector are over, but the government's urbanization drive will continue to fuel demand for the next 15 years, the country's biggest residential property developer China Vanke Co said.

After climbing at double-digit rates through most of last year, home prices in China started cooling in late 2013, with the annual growth in average new home prices slowing to an 11-month low in April as a sustained campaign to clamp down on speculative investment and easy credit gained traction.

Vanke president Yu Liang said the slowdown heralded the end of the golden era for Chinese real estate, but said the outlook remained healthy.

"The white silver era has just begun," Yu told reporters at its research and development center in Dongguan in South China's Guangdong Province this week.

"The industry is now after quality and service and back to real demand...The industry was worth 8.1 trillion yuan ($1.30 trillion) last year, even growing at a single-digit rate, it's still large enough for us."

His comments came nearly a week after ratings agency Moody's lowered its outlook for China's property sector and forecast flat to 5 percent yearly growth over the next 12 months, compared to 26.6 percent growth at the end of 2013.

Yu said he believed government measures to curb speculation in the property sector had worked and prices were now more sustainable.

"I don't agree there's a bubble. Since the tightening measures in 2008, financial leverage of developers and individual investors has dropped significantly," Yu said.

Analysts said the latest land transaction prices have shown that the market is becoming more rational.

"Land sales in first-tier cities weakened in April as housing prices softened. It's important for developers to time and source the land purchase better because land cost is a big factor to determine margins," said Hong Kong-based analyst Karen Kwan.

Kwan said developers in April were bidding on average 40 percent higher than the asking price at land auctions, compared to 80-100 percent above opening bids last year. Transaction prices in April were also 1 percentage point lower than the previous month.

She said data also showed that developers had been delaying some new housing projects so she expected less oversupply in the fourth quarter.

New housing starts in the first quarter fell 25.2 percent compared to a year ago, sparking concerns that a sharp drop in construction activity and falling prices would weigh on economic growth in the world's second-largest economy.

Yu's comments came just days after the chairman of SOHO China sounded an alarm over the real estate sector.

"I am not upbeat about the residential market. I think China's real estate is like the Titanic and it will soon hit an iceberg up front," local media quoted Soho China chairman Pan Shiyi as telling a financial forum last week.

China Vanke also aims to get listed in the second half of June, Yu said.

Authorities in Guangdong province, an economic powerhouse in South China, plan to allocate a large sum of money this year to boost its economy.

According to a financial budget report submitted to a provincial legislative meeting for approval on Wednesday, the province will arrange for up to 64.7 billion yuan ($10.47 billion) to support development of infrastructure, maintain stable trade growth, expand consumption and promote the transformation of industry.

The move comes after relatively slow economic growth in the first four months of 2014.

The province's gross domestic product grew 7.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, or 1.3 percentage points lower than the same period last year, data from the Guangdong Provincial Statistics Bureau show.

"The economy faces pressures, and there are some uncertain factors ahead, following a tough trade situation, sluggish performance in the real estate sector and weakening demand in domestic consumption," Zeng Zhiquan, director of Guangdong Provincial Finance Department, said. "That's why we had to introduce financial measures to keep stable economic development for the whole year."

Guangdong, a longtime leader in terms of economic development in China, has a GDP growth target of 8.5 percent for 2014.

"A prompt and efficient financial policy is of great importance to adjusting the economy, given the slower economic growth of the past few months," Zeng said. There's "an urgent need for the government to introduce measures to boost the economy."

Of the budget, up to 14.8 billion yuan will come from local Treasury bonds, Zeng said.

"We expect that financial input will drive more social investment, which will help boost infrastructure development and expand domestic consumption," Zeng said.

Guangdong's fixed investment increased 17.3 percent year-on-year in the first three months, 2.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year.

Before the financial measures, the provincial government also decided to exempt 39 administrative fees for businesses from May 1.

"In such an economic situation, the exemption of administrative fees and increased financial support represented the government's determination to cope with the economic slowdown," Zeng said.

Expected salary of university graduates has fallen to 3,680 yuan per month, a record low in past four years, the Beijing News reported on Wednesday.

According to China Graduates Employment Pressure Report of 2014 released by Beijing Youth Stress Management Service Center, the expected salary was 5,537 yuan in 2011, almost 2,000 yuan more than this year.

It also shows that there are more than seven million university graduates this year, the highest number in history. However, salary and employment pressure are at the lowest in past four years.

Although the expected salary this year was a slight drop compared to 2013, but seen against the 5,537 yuan in 2011, the decline was substantial.

Meanwhile, with the drop in expected salary, the employment pressure also fell from 18.17 percent last year to 16.91 percent in 2014.

Employees in China's foreign-invested companies earned more than any other group last year, according to new survey results released Tuesday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement on its website that foreign companies paid an average annual salary of 61,694 yuan (10,001 U.S. dollars) to their employees in 2013, topping all other types of companies.

State-owned companies paid the second highest at 56,728 yuan, while companies with investment from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan paid 49,683 yuan to employees, the statement showed.

The NBS tracked 870,000 companies in 16 sectors for the survey. The average salary of all tracked companies was 45,676 yuan.

The young generation shows a different attitude, which makes them more frequently miss a job interview, turn down offers and have no qualms about quitting if the work is not to their taste.

Members of the post-1990 generation looking for work apply for multiple positions and hold high expectations of the jobs, a reflection of young people's changing attitudes amid the country's development, recent research showed.

When fresh graduates do snag a job interview, they are also more likely to miss it, turn down offers and have no qualms about quitting if the work is not to their taste.

These were some of the main findings of research conducted by leading Chinese recruitment website 51job.com.

Of those surveyed, 45.1 percent of employers said more than half of job candidates failed to turn up on time for interviews.

More than 60 percent of fresh graduates also felt they needed help from their parents to look for work, the research showed.

The website surveyed 2,357 enterprises and 1,230 fresh graduates nationwide over 15 days in 2013.

Liu Jinjin, deputy director of the human resources department at the Social Sciences Academic Press, said members of the post-1990 generation are picky about employment and it was common for them to break appointments for job interviews.

"Most of the post-1990 generation are the only child in the family. Their living conditions have greatly improved from that of the post-1980 and post-1970 generations. They don't experience much pressure in life so they pay closer attention to personal preferences and interests when hunting for a job," Liu said.

The post-1990 generation also does not care about the amount of money they make. Instead, the working environment, the happiness they derive from their work and respect from others are what matter most, she said.

"The post-1990 generation does not think twice about leaving in their first year of work. If they lose interest in a job or are not clear about their future career path, they will quit easily," Liu said.

Members of the generation are also more self-oriented. They want more time for themselves and are not willing to work overtime.

Their attitude to life is more casual, Liu said.

Zhang Gao, the campus brand director of Chinese Internet search giant Baidu, said a survey it conducted this year found that the post-1990 generation focus on work-life balance.

"They need some space when they work and don't want to be managed too strictly," Zhang said, adding that members of that generation often choose to work according to their interests and have their own ideas and views about work.

Zhu Guangchuan, 22, will graduate from Sanya College in Hainan province this July. He told China Daily he is now working as an Internet salesman for a local travel company.

"I chose this work out of interest. I think the salary is not the most important factor, and I focus on the opportunities for career development," he said.

Zhu said he once received about five notices for job interviews but only attended the one he was most interested in.

"My parents are open-minded, so they respect my personal choice," he said.

Sun Wan, born in 1990, is a fresh graduate who majored in Japanese. She said 30 to 40 percent of her classmates are not working after their graduation. Many plan to go abroad or take up postgraduate studies.

"I am not desperate for a job, although I have received some offers from employers. I plan to undertake a one-year training program in Japan then hunt for a job there. I like their corporate culture, and I also specialize in Japanese."

Sun said she once had an internship at a hotel but gave it up because the work was very tiring.

She said she follows her heart when job-hunting.

"If I don't like the work in Japan, I will consider coming back home." Her family does not require her to work immediately, she said.

Members of the post-1990 generation also pose challenges for employers.

Feng Lijuan, the chief consultant at 51job.com, said members can access lots of information online every day and have many work opportunities, so they compare and deliberate on different positions and might not stay in a company for long.

Feng said employers should communicate with their post-1990 employees regularly and provide counseling to help them solve problems.

This generation is very sensitive and has a lot of self-esteem, so employers need to be concerned about their temperaments and ways of communication, she said.