Recruiting in China

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.