Recruiting in China

Civil servants are the least happy employees in China, research has revealed.

A survey of over 9,000 respondents found that civil servants had the lowest level of job satisfaction of the 12 sector categories that were included.

According to a report on the All-China Women's Federation website, employees working in the private sector had the second lowest levels, whilst the happiest employees worked in foreign enterprises and joint ventures. The survey was commissioned by the Psychology Institution of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and hosted on recruitment website Zhaopin. Three quarters of those who took it were below the age of 30.

Li Xupei, deputy director of the Mental Health Promotion Centre at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said some people entering the civil service believed their job would be "easy", but later found that they were "constantly working overtime" and that the work was unexpectedly challenging.

A 2012 survey of civil servants in China's central departments of state also found that 13.5% suffered from severe or extreme stress. Despite this, the number of people taking the recruitment exams for the Chinese civil service rose to a record 1.2m in November 2012.

According to China's Global Times, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has begun a pilot project which offers new civil servants fixed-term employment contracts, ending the widely-held perception that a job in the civil service is a job for life. This may reduce demand for government positions in future.

Li said the survey also found that, despite low satisfaction levels, the "collective happiness" of civil servants was high due to the respect they receive from the public.

China has the highest number of top talents moving overseas in the world, News.cn reports

According to the Office of Central Talent Work Coordination Group, about 87 percent of professionals regarded as top talents working in the science and engineering field have chosen to emigrate out of China.

A survey released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that many innovative talents in the Chinese science & technology sector, especially in the fields of physics, mathematics and computer sciences, have served in high positions in the world organizations.

With the current fierce international competition for expertise from such personnel, many developed countries have been attracting talent by adjusting their immigration policies, and some developing countries have now also joined the global competition for talent.

Nearly one million Chinese overseas students returned to China through the "Recruitment Program of Global Experts" (1000 Talent Plan), including 20 thousand high-quality overseas professionals.

The report quotes a senior official with the Office of Central Talent Work Coordination Group as saying that China needs more flexible talent development policies and mechanisms to attract more talent coming back.

An annual salary of no less than 200,000 yuan ($32,640) will be offered to six new high-ranking government employees hired by Beijing on fixed-term contracts, announced the capital's public service authority.

The six senior executive positions, which are highly prioritized to boost the capital's growth, are with agencies including the municipal science and technology committee, the transport commission and the economic-technological development area.

However, those positions are not government jobs for life, often referred to as the "iron rice bowl," as the two or three-year-long contract not only has a probation period varying from three to six months, but also can be terminated should the person fail a performance test.

All Chinese citizens under the age of 45, physically and psychologically healthy with relevant qualifications and skills, can apply for the positions, reads the recruitment announcement.

Qualified candidates must file their application before 6 pm on June 24. Candidates have to pass a tailored written test, an interview, a comprehensive review and a seven-day public review period before being recruited.

Long before Beijing, Shenzhen already started recruiting government employees with a contract in 2007.

More than 3,200 of some 40,000 government employees are working there on a contract basis.

Contract-based recruitment, which smashes the permanence and stability of the "iron rice bowl," has also been expanded to cities and provinces including Shanghai.

Generally, a candidate has to pass a unified civil service exam and an interview before being hired by a State organ. In 2012, some 1.5 million candidates took the exam, with 75 competing for a position on average.

Mao Shoulong, a public administration professor at the Renmin University of China, said it is suitable to recruit intermediate and senior professionals through contracts, who may be unwilling to take the general exam and not work in one place for their whole life.

However, Mao said he sees no need to recruit all government employees on a contract basis, adding that neither of the systems is foolproof.

Individuals could apply for the right to use uninhabited islands in Zhejiang Province for business development, with the longest possible lease 50 years, according to new local regulations formally implemented on Saturday.

Among the 2,639 uninhabited islands in Zhejiang Province, 31 are listed in the first published batch of 176 usable uninhabited islands nationwide, said Liu Xiangdong, an inspector with the Zhejiang Province Ocean and Fisheries Bureau at a press conference on Thursday.

The islands can be used for purposes from tourism to industry. Individuals could choose one from the 31 islands and submit an application including a concrete development plan to the county-level maritime authorities, Liu said.

After receiving an application, the authorities will publish the applicant's name, the island involved, and the development plans to the public. They should also look for comments and receive approval from county-level governments, provincial maritime authorities and the provincial government, he said.

A bidding process will determine who gets the islands. If these islands have not been developed within three years, their rights could be withdrawn by the provincial government.

"The regulation is worth promoting nationwide," Dong Liming, a vice director-general at the China Land Science Society, told the Global Times Friday. "With individuals working on the inhabited islands, our maritime economy could be developed and national defense could be strengthened."

Growth in China’s services sector slowed sharply in April to its lowest point since August 2011, a private sector survey showed on Monday – fresh evidence of rising risks to a revival in the world’s No.2 economy.

The HSBC services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 51.1 in April from 54.3 in March, with new order expansion the slowest in 20 months and staffing levels in the service sector decreasing for the first time since January 2009.

Two separate PMIs last week had already shown that China’s manufacturing sector growth slowed, With the weakness spreading to services, which make up almost half of gross domestic product, the risk to the recovery may be increasing.

“The weak HSBC service PMI figure provides further evidence of a slowdown not only in the factory sector but also in the service sector,” said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura Securities in Hong Kong.

“This confirms our worries about insufficient growth momentum in the economy, which we expect to slow to 7.5 percent in the second quarter.”

The HSBC services PMI follows a similar survey by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, which found non-manufacturing activity eased to 54.5 from 55.6. The official PMI is more weighted towards large state-owned firms.

Readings above 50 indicate activity in the sector is growing, while those below 50 indicate it is contracting.

The HSBC survey showed that the sub-index measuring new business orders dropped sharply to a 20-month low of 51.5 in April, with only 15 percent of survey respondents reporting an increased volume of new orders that month, HSBC said.

“This started to bite employment growth. All these are likely to add some risk to China’s growth in 2Q, as there’s still a bumpy road towards sustaining growth recovery,” said HSBC’s China chief economist Qu Hongbin.

The employment sub-index decreased to 49.6 in April, the first net reduction in staff numbers since January 2009, although HSBC said job losses were marginal, partially caused by firms down-sizing and employee resignations.

Employment is a decisive factor shaping government thinking because it is crucial for social stability. The services sector accounted for 46 percent of China’s gross domestic product in 2012, as big as the country’s better-known manufacturing industry.

China’s economic growth unexpectedly stumbled in the first quarter, slipping to 7.7 percent versus 7.9 percent in the previous three month period, as factory output and investment slowed.

The government has set a 2013 growth target of 7.5 percent, a level Beijing deems sufficient for job creation while providing some room to reform to the economy.

Any more weak data could spark a policy response.

“The risk of slower growth is rising, the Chinese government will probably take actions after April data come out,” said Jianguang Shen, chief China economist of Mizuho Securities Asia in Hong Kong.

“I see an increasing possibility for China to cut interest rates, but not likely any time in the near future, as housing inflation is a constraint.”

However a Reuters poll last month found that China’s central bank is expected to keep the benchmark one-year bank lending rate at 6 percent and the one-year bank deposit rate at 3 percent through 2013, as well as holding banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRR) steady.

China’s migrant workers exceeded 260 million at the end of 2012, with an average monthly salary of 2,290 yuan ($374.09), according to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics of China.

The bureau published the 2012 Investigational and Monitoring Report of Chinese Migrant Workers on Sunday, according to Xinhua News, China’s state-owned news agency. At the end of 2012, the number of migrant workers in China increased by 3.9 percent to 262.61 million, and the average salary of migrant workers rose 241 yuan ($39.37) to 2,290 yuan per month.

Migrant workers were previously farmers or were farmers ancestrally, and as China has modernized have chosen to seek more profitable, most often industrial work, in urban centers across the country. Many – 160 million in 2012 – choose to migrate to metropolitan cities farther away from their home regions.

In terms of income, average monthly salary rose 11.8 percent to 2,290 yuan for Chinese migrant workers in 2012. Workers in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau as well as foreign countries make significantly more – 5,550 yuan ($906.63) per month. Workers engaged in transportation and construction work have higher-than-average monthly salaries, 2,735 yuan ($446.78) and 2,654 yuan ($433.55), respectively.

Most migrant workers have not completed more than middle school- level education. In 2012, 1.5 percent of migrant workers were illiterate, 14.3 percent completed elementary school, 60.5 percent middle school, 13.3 percent high school, and 10.4 percent completed higher education. Younger workers and workers who went abroad have relatively higher education levels.

Migrant workers’ average age is increasing as well. In 2008, 70 percent of all migrant workers were below 40 years of age, and in 2012, only 59.3 percent were below 40. Accordingly, the average age increased from 34 to 37.3.

Significantly, many of these migrant workers were not working under contract, and were therefore not entitled to any form of social security. In 2012, 43.9 percent of migrant workers signed employment contracts, a similar percentage compared to previous years.

Meanwhile, 0.5 percent of migrant workers were not paid on time or at all, due to the lack of contracts. Only 14.3 percent received retirement benefits, 24 percent work-related injury insurance, 16.9 medical insurance, 8.4 percent unemployment and 6.1 percent maternity benefits. More than 40 percent of employers of migrant workers did not provide housing or housing subsidies, Xinhua News reported.