Recruiting in China

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.

Those few employers that are adding staff are sifting through more résumés than ever.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employers on average, are evaluating 5.4 candidates for each of their openings. The calculation is based on April 2009 figures.

To show how quickly the picture has changed, consider that employers were seeing only 1.7 candidates per opening in December of 2007.

The April figure was a hefty jump from March, when employers were seeing 4.8 candidates per opening.