Recruiting in China

China's human resources authorities say the worsening global financial conditions have begun to weigh on the country's job market. That's the message released at a press conference on Thursday. But officials denied rumors that there have been massive cuts in employees

According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the employment situation for 2008 as a whole, is stable. Yin Weimin noted that one of the ministry's top concerns is the ripple effect of the global economic malaise. It has forced increasing numbers of small and medium-sized enterprises to close and caused job losses, especially after October. He said the government is taking measures to maintain employment stability.

In the first ten months, the number of new employees totaled 10.2 million, slightly more than the full-year target of 10 million. And the urban unemployment rate was 4 percent, below the government's target of about 4.5 percent for the whole year. However, the future picture might be gloomier than the current statistics indicate.

For Jin Zhenghao, this November has been the most stressful month in his 25 years of life.

A financial engineering major at Xiamen University in southeast China's Fujian Province, Jin is desperately trying to find a job before graduating in June 2009.

November is when the school gave him time to market himself to potential employers. Jin has sent resumes to nearly 30 companies, resulting in five interviews. So far, he has received no job offers.

Now, Jin is paying 2,000 yuan (US$293) a month to live in Shanghai, the country's financial hub, in hopes of securing more interviews.

"Companies either have few job vacancies or simply don't want new people," Jin told Xinhua over the phone. Only a year ago, he added, graduates like him, would end up with job offers from several well-known international or domestic financial companies before graduation.

"The situation is obviously very bad this year. The financial crisis is a major reason," said Jin. "I'm really worried."

Many financial companies, particularly international big names, have cut employees this year due to overseas problems in stock markets.

Jin is not the only one to feel the economic shockwave from the developed world. Thousands of factories which used to manufacture shoes, clothes or toys for export, have been closed or are struggling for survival as foreign orders declined.

This not only means there are more unemployed people, but also fewer opportunities for first-time job seekers.

Deputy Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Zhang Xiaojian said here on Thursday that 6.1 million college and university students will graduate in the first half of next year.

An additional four million college students who graduated in previous years have not found jobs and will also be vying for limited opportunities.

"If companies' demand for new employees drops significantly, finding a job will definitely become more difficult for college students," Zhang said.

Professor Yue Changjun, an expert on education and economy at Peking University in Beijing, told China Youth Daily that 67,000 private Chinese companies closed in the first half of this year.

According to Yue, this is a significant figure because private companies employed 34.2 percent of college graduates last year.

"How come I can't find a job?" a Peking University student, anonymously named "Rebecca ycj", asked in a message posted on the university's online forum.

The law student said she applied for jobs at several firms, state-owned enterprises, banks and even a news agency, but every time she was refused.

Research from 51job.com, a popular job-seeking website in China, showed the financial service, real estate, foreign trade and manufacturing industries were the hardest hit sectors as a result of the economic slowdown.

The number of job vacancies in financial services, for example, dropped by 12 percent in the July-November period, compared with the same period of last year.

Zhang said the government, schools and students were moving quickly to try to address the difficulties.

A total of 259 job fairs are currently underway throughout China. Nearly 30,000 enterprises, government organs and public institutions will offer more than 500,000 jobs at those fairs before November 30, said Zhang.

"The major idea is to help college graduates obtain employment information, create more job opportunities and encourage students to work in less developed geographical areas where they are welcomed," he said.

Prof. Li Daokui of Tsinghua University said because not all sectors are affected by the recession overseas, the prospect of employment isn't as dire as some people feel.

The government announced a 4 trillion yuan stimulus package to boost the economy and domestic demand.

"As long as China's economy maintains 9 percent growth, 10 million new jobs can be created every year," Li said.

Meanwhile, students are encouraged to think more creatively when applying for jobs, for example, they need to lower their salary expectations or consider working in rural instead of urban areas.

In a country with more than 1.3 billion people, college education used to be considered a guarantee for good income, a decent work place and a passport to big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Things have changed now.

Jin said financial risk management companies and consulting firms were his first choice for work because entry-level income can be at least 7,000 yuan a month.

"Now 5,000 yuan or even lower is acceptable, as long as I work in the financial field," he said.

The financial crisis has also made government jobs an unexpected favorite among graduates.

A total of 775,000 people applied for a national examination to qualify as government servants. That's the highest number since 1994 and 130,000 people more than applied last year, said Yang Shiqiu, Deputy Minister of Human Resources and Social Security.

"Only 13,500 persons will be recruited, meaning less than two in every 100 people will succeed," he said.

Three years ago, 3.38 million teenagers went off to college, hoping that higher education would lead to a bright future.

These days, many of those students are cutting class to attend jobs fairs, which began Sunday in Tianjin and Dalian and will be opening in various cities across the country this week, with some 530,000 jobs on offer.

According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, students majoring in business management, electronics and information, economics, engineering, foreign languages, construction and architecture, medicine, law, transportation, and chemistry and pharmaceuticals have the best chance of landing a job.

Despite the ministry's upbeat announcement, the job prospects for this year's college graduates are, frankly, not too bright.

The world is suffering from a global credit crunch. It seems virtually no country will escape economic recession.

In the US alone, millions of families may lose their homes. Consumer spending has ground to a halt, meaning that there will be far less demand for products from China. Already, as orders decline and exports shrink, tens of thousands of enterprises have closed down, while many others have cut back their production and employment.

Last year, 34.2 percent of China's 3.5 million college graduates landed jobs with private businesses. How many such jobs will be available this year?

Some 350 businesses have listed about 30,000 positions on a job-placement website for university graduates. In the same period last year, 450 enterprises offered 50,000 jobs.

No wonder both the Internet and traditional media are filled with advice for worried job-seekers. Unfortunately, much of this advice raises unrealistically high hopes, hopes that in many cases are destined to be dashed.

Personally, I believe there is too much emphasis on starting salaries. In a recent online poll, only 3.81 percent of prospective college graduates said they did not care about starting salary, and less than 10 percent said they'd accept a starting salary of less than 1,500 yuan.

It has been suggested that the government set a minimum salary for college graduates. While I don't think college graduates should enjoy a special minimum salary, the state at least should compile accurate information about the job market and provide it to graduates in a timely manner.

Colleges and universities, too, must shoulder more responsibility for helping job-seekers. Institutions of higher learning should not forget the heady days three years ago, when they claimed their employment rate was somewhere around 99 percent.

Ultimately, however, the responsibility for their future rests on the graduates themselves. They must think hard about what they want to do and make realistic choices as they look for jobs.

Frankly, the attitude of some college graduates leaves a lot to be desired. Back in the 1980s, I remember one new tour guide telling a colleague that she couldn't care less whether the foreign tourists she was looking after caught a cold or not. Such attitudes are intolerable in any workplace.

Over the years, I've helped quite a number of talented young people join China Daily. They came with a clear interest in writing for a newspaper. Their first assignments were often not the challenging, important tasks they dreamed off, but they persevered. One young colleague of mine worked the night shift for three months for free, just to get a job.

Eventually, those who showed devotion, discipline, and creativity won the trust of the editors. They are the ones who have been steadfast in their work and have become good reporters and editors.

To get a good job, today's graduates have only themselves to depend on.

China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has announced a series of measures to stabilize employment amid the global financial crisis.

In a circular on Monday, the ministry urged local governments to maintain a stable employment market by strengthening the pre-warning and regulation system on unemployment.

Companies have to seek local labor bureaus' for permission before mass layoffs or stopping recruitment.

The circular encourages State-owned enterprises do their best to minimize the number of layoffs. People who have lost their jobs because of bankrupt enterprises should be given the entire amount of unemployment insurance payment on time.

It calls for development of labor-intensive industries. Local governments should accord priority to developing key enterprises in labor-intensive industries, and improve relevant polices of financial support, credit financing and social service.
The ministry has laid emphasis on efforts to help university graduates, laid-off workers and people in impoverished areas find jobs. Calling for more efforts to implement a pro-active employment policy, it has stressed that laid-off workers of bankrupt enterprises be helped to find jobs.

Local government officials should visit enterprises and communities to register laid-off people, it said.

They should ensure basic living conditions for laid-off people, and provide employment services such as job training and guidance to help them find jobs as soon as possible.

BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- As mass layoffs and labor disputes become more frequent when global economic slowdown wipes out more companies from business, Chinese government has urged local authorities to make best efforts to properly respond.

The top priority should be given to ensuring stable employment, said China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) in a notice issued on Monday.

Investigation should be carried out concerning individual companies' possible layoffs, especially labor-intensive factories, it said. The labor situation of companies that go bankrupt should be closely monitored.

In October, Local government in Dongguan of Guangdong Province, where many labor-intensive companies located, took out more than 24 million yuan (3.5 million U.S. dollars) to compensate for the salaries of over 7,000 workers, who was left helpless when a company owner secretly fled.

Emergency plans should be formulated in order to better prevent and deal with incidents involving a large group of unemployed workers, and make sure to report to higher level of the government and make appropriate arrangement as soon as possible, it said.

An efficient and convenient channel should be created for people to appeal for arbitration of labor disputes, so as to resolve major or mass disputes in time, it said.

The notice also required that arrangements be made to guarantee unemployment insurance, encourage reemployment, and better serve the migrant workers.

China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security started a weeklong job-hunting service campaign on Sunday to help university graduates get employed amid the global financial crisis.

Nationwide job fairs and online recruitments will offer more than 520,000 job vacancies for the graduates.

Statistics showed that about six million students will graduate from universities and colleges next year and some 800,000 of this year's graduates are still awaiting job offers.

Si Yilei, director of the ministry's National Center for Human Resources, said besides the job fairs, the ministry would also provide consultations on job-hunting, give guidance and training to the graduates who choose to start their own business, and establish a database of unemployed graduates.

Vice Minister Zhang Xiaojian said the graduates would face severe challenge in job-hunting due to the global financial crisis.

"It's significant to the social stability of helping the graduates to get employed," Zhang said.

More job opportunities in less-developed central and western parts of China will be offered to the graduates, he said.