Recruiting in China

Firm expects to hire around 80 people

CONOVER, NC — Folks in these parts are used to jobs connected to the textile industry moving overseas but a Chinese company is locating here and creating nearly 80 jobs.

Catawba County Economic Development Corporation announced on Thursday that Wuxi Taiji Paper Industry Company Ltd. is putting its first US manufacturing location in Conover and will hire 78 workers over the next four years. The company is buying the former Prestige Pillow 50,000-square-foot building, located at 405 Wortha Herman Road SW in Conover. It plans to invest $3 million, say EDC officials.

The company makes spiral-wound cardboard tubes and cores used in multiple industries, including the textile industry, according to information from the county EDC.

Julie Pruett, director of business recruitment for Catawba County Economic Development Corporation, said the jobs will include administration, sales and production. The first phase of hiring will start soon, according to information from the county EDC.

While salaries will vary according to the job, the overall average annual salary is more than $31,000, not including the additional benefits package, according to information from Catawba EDC.

The company is not receiving any incentives from the county or state, Pruett said. But it will get tax credits for the jobs it creates, she said.

Pruett said the company wants to have its equipment moved into its new building by February and be up and running by March.

“We are determined to be a respected tube and core supplier in North America,” says Mr. Meizong Yin, the company president.

The company is following what appears to be a trend to localize manufacturing. In other words, if a company sells in the US, it makes its products in the US, say officials.

“We are honored that Mr. Meizong Yin selected Conover as their first manufacturing footprint in America,” said Conover Mayor Lee Moritz Jr. “Our citizens are appreciative for this opportunity to become a member of the TAIJA Group team. It is exciting to see visionary international companies like TAIJI Group recognize the value of American manufacturing.”

Conover was competing against areas throughout the state, as well as locations in Virginia, Pruett said. County EDC and the state Department of Commerce officials have been working with the company since September, she said.

“It makes good business sense to locate their US operation in Catawba County which is the most specialized area for manufacturing in North and South Carolina,” Pruett said. “We were fortunate to have an available building with adequate ceiling heights and square footage that would meet the client’s needs.”

The company also chose Conover because it is centrally located near its customers, Pruett said.

The Taiji Group was established in China in 1994. In addition to the Chinese market, the company also has customers who are leading multinational companies in South East Asia, Europe and North and South America, according to information from Catawba County EDC.

“We welcome TAIJI Group(USA) Inc. to Catawba County and applaud their commitment to grow their business in the United States by investing in the people of Catawba County,” said Kitty Barnes, chair of the Catawba County Board of Commissioners.

To apply for a job with Wuxi Taiji Paper Industry Company, contact the Catawba County office of the NC Department of Commerce Division of Employment Security at 466-5535. The employment office is located at 3301 US 70 SE, Newton.

Summary: Small and mid-sized e-retailers have started sacking people before the Chinese New Year amid pessimistic forecasts for the year, but despite Internet sales surging another 65 percent in 2012.

After one of the country's most prominent electronics retailers, Gome Electrical Appliance, last week announced that it would lay off 200 staff on its e-commerce platform Gome.com.cn, a number of other B2C (business-to-commerce) retailers in China have also followed suit.

With the Chinese New Year approaching, Qianpin, one of China's top 10 group-buying sites, confirmed in a First Financial Daily report that the company had fired around 200 employees in a new round of layoffs executed at the end of 2012, accounting for almost 40 percent of Qianpin's total headcount.

In 2011, the company announced that it had successfully attracted venture capital totaling 100 million yuan (US$16.1 million), touting "not-short-of-cash" as its recruitment gimmick.

Some of China's local clothing brands also closed their online stores on Taobao Mall (TMall), the country's largest B2C marketplace. Some companies hold negative views on the market outlook for 2013, and have laid off staff before the start of the year's peak recruitment season.

At the same time, larger players, including 360buy.com and Suning.com, launched aggressive promotions in 2012, which pushed up overall costs for these smaller-sized e-retailers in attracting consumers and affected sales. This led to attempts by these retailers to reduce staff costs in a bid to survive in the market, according to the First Financial Daily report.

However, a report released by 100EC.cn on January 29 showed that the size of the Chinese online retail market reached 1.3 trillion yuan (US$209 billion) in 2012, representing a year-on-year increase of 64.7 percent. This indicated that the overall e-retail market maintained a "fast pace of development" in China.

But sales promotion wars between large e-retailers also brought up several issues in the market. Consumers would only make purchases when there are huge discounts, which further squeezed the margins of smaller players in the market, according to analyst Wang Zhouping from the China e-Business Research Center. He anticipated that more small and mid-sized e-retailers will implement staff layoffs or close down in early-2013.

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.

Summary: Monster Worldwide's China unit is starting to shed 54 percent of its 400 workers, and remaining employees organize a sit-in office protest to demand for compensation should they be laid off this year.

Chinese recruitment site ChinaHR.com, a subsidiary of Monster Worldwide, has started laying off 54 percent of its 400 staff members amid discussions of the company being sold.

According to Sina Tech Wednesday, the dismissed staff were compensated three months' salary plus additional amounts depending on the time they have spent with the company. For example, an employee who has been with ChinaHR.com for five years will get an additional five months' worth of his salary. Pregnant staff members will receive an extra 24 months' salary, it added.

The layoffs come amid reports in November 2012 that Monster Worldwide will sell off its Chinese business unit, which it fully acquired in 2008, as part of its restructuring program to curb losses of US$130 billion. The acquiring company has not been disclosed though.

However, employees who did not get laid off were unsatisfied as they were not included in the compensation scheme. They were also disgruntled that ChinaHR CEO Luo Bingquan did not want to reveal details of the buyout, citing confidentiality, it reported.

On Tuesday night, more than 200 employees organized a sit-in protest in ChinaHR's headquarters in Beijing.

After 10 hours of negotiation, both Luo and Monster Chairman Sal Iannuzzi proposed the remaining staff be compensated with the same plan if they are to be laid off in 2013 following ChinaHR's acquisition, Sina Tech reported.

The proposal is subject to the approval from the unnamed buyer of the Web company, it added.

Apple has stuck to its word and begun to cut ties with Chinese suppliers who are found to employ underage workers.

Apple last year joined forces with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) after a report from the organisation found evidence of the practise at some of Apple’s suppliers.

Now the company has released its Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, in which it was revealed that Apple has cut ties with Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics (PZ) after 74 violations were discovered.

Staffing firm Shenzhen Quanshun Human Resources, which supplied workers to PZ, reportedly went as far as to aid families to produce fake age documentation. 106 active cases were revealed.

Interestingly, notorious employer Foxconn “is on track to meet the FLA's recommendations by July 1st”, The Verge reports.

In fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook has made a point of stressing that improved labour practices are a key priority for Apple – a notable change from the seemingly opposite policy employed by his predecessor (and Buddhist!) Steve Jobs.

The company performed 393 labour audits in 2012 – that’s a 72 per cent increase over 2011.

According to Antal China, the oil and gas sector is about to experience significant growth thanks to the growth of the Chinese economy. The company state that since 2011, the two China oil giants CNPC and Sinopec, have been pushing the wholesale prices down at a minimum, while increasing the prices of the retailed refined oil, thereby delivering high profits. However this year, at a time when the price difference between retailed and wholesaled oil has reached RMB 300/ton, foreign and private retail stations are facing a serious lack of oil source. For this reason some oil companies are now setting up their own depot – a move which has been recorded and supported by recruiting firm Antal China. In part, these new ventures ensure the companies retain enough oil reserve, but they also help companies to respond to price fluctuation which remain a clear feature of the Chinese market.

Antal have also perceived that deep-sea oil and gas field Exploration and Production (E&P) is becoming a greater focus in the region. However, this area of business requires higher quality of equipment, technology and talent. There are clearly new opportunities here for foreign companies who wish to supply this kind of technology to the region and alongside this there will be a higher demand for skilled personnel in deep sea development, project management, sales and application.

Antal have already been working in this area, recruiting for a foreign company who specialise in high-end sub-sea products. The company concerned set up a new office in Shenzhen in order to supply the deep-sea E&P development.