Recruiting in China

China's manufacturing sector continued to expand with the purchasing managers' index hitting a 47-month high in December, a private survey showed Tuesday.

Caixin General China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), a private gauge of China's manufacturing activity, came in at 51.9 in December, up from 50.9 in November, according to a survey conducted by financial information service provider Markit and sponsored by Caixin Media Co. Ltd.

This was the index's biggest rise since January 2013, and production grew at the fastest pace in nearly six years thanks to an increase in total new work.

Official manufacturing PMI released on Sunday stood at 51.4 in December, lower than 51.7 in November and staying above the 50-point boom-bust line for the fifth straight month.

Automobile sales are expected to slow next year after a boom in 2016, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

Growth in auto sales in 2017 could slow to an annual 2 percent to 6 percent, said MOC spokesperson Shen Danyang, citing industry estimates.

About 25 million cars were sold in China in the first 11 months this year, up 14.1 percent year on year thanks to a preferential car purchase taxation policy and other government measures.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Finance continued its preferential car purchase taxation policy but cut the tax reduction ratio for 2017.

A high comparison base and a discounted preferential taxation policy will drag down auto sales growth next year, Shen said.

When Fang Wenxin founded a virtual reality (VR) firm in 2015, he never expected the industry would go bust so soon.

The boom in China's VR industry following Facebook's U.S.$2-billion buyout of Oculus, a U.S. producer of VR gadgets and computer games, in 2014 has declined, with about 90 percent of start-ups in the domestic market declaring bankruptcy.

"There were about 200 to 300 firms engaged in producing VR helmets in 2015, but now no more than 10 companies remain functioning," Fang said.

During the past few months, domestic VR companies, such as Storm Magic Mirror, Miido and AlfaReal, started to downsize organizations or delay payments of employee salaries due to a diminution in venture capital.

According to the latest report issued by iiMedia Research, a third party data collector and analyst of technological digital platforms, the supply of high-end smart glasses in the domestic market has failed to lure consumers, with more than 70 percent of respondents among smart cell phone users expressing no willingness to buy one.

Taken up by gigantic tech firms, such as HTC, Facebook and Sony, the market for VR hardware has left slim chances for smaller manufacturers to slot in, so that the VR businesses of domestic manufacturers focus mostly on content production.

However, despite the increasing involvement of VR start-ups, cheap copycats have eaten up the market, blocking the channels necessary for high-end innovation to reach customers.

The slump in the VR market during the second half of 2016 in China is probably the result of deficient industrial innovations, said Wu Limei, an analyst of the iiMedia Research.

But the recent fall of the VR industry may be less ominous than a sign of industrial recession when the frenetic flows of capitals have cooled down.

Zhao Ziming, an analyst from Analysys, Ltd., an agent of data collection and analysis, said the industry will be reshuffled by the entries of big companies, like BAT and NetEase, following the bankruptcies of small companies with broken capital chains. The threshold will be elevated and the money will be spent more reasonably.

Investment in the Chinese VR industry soared to 270 million yuan (U.S.$38.9 million) in 2014, a robust rise followed by 2.4 billion yuan in 2015 and 1.54 billion yuan in the first half of 2016.

Profits of China's major industrial firms increased 14.5 percent year on year in November, up from 9.8 percent registered in October, official data showed Tuesday.

Profits of industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan (about 2.87 million U.S. dollars) totaled 774.57 billion yuan last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

In the first 11 months of the year, industrial profits expanded 9.4 percent year on year to 6.03 trillion yuan, faster than the 8.6 percent rise for the first ten months, the NBS said.

NBS statistician He Ping said the sharp growth in November was a result of acceleration in the growth of both industrial production and sales, a significant rise in producer prices and the strong performance of electronics, special equipment manufacturing and oil refining sectors.

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, continued its growth, rising by a five-year high of 3.3 percent year on year in November.

Sany Group, the parent company of heavy machinery manufacturer Sany Heavy Industry Co. Ltd, on Monday led a group of ten private companies in setting up a commercial bank.

The Sanxiang Bank, based in Hunan Province, will operate with a registered capital of 3 billion yuan (435 million U.S. dollars). It is China's eighth private commercial bank since the regulatory allowed private capital into the banking sector in 2013.

The Sanxiang Bank will focus on Chinese manufacturers, especially those investing heavily in technology.

Bank president Liang Zaizhong said that while operating with much less capital than state banks, it is China's first bank associated with a major manufacturer.

Sany Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. sells a wide range of construction machinery such as excavators and cranes and has extensive global presence. It operates 25 manufacturing bases and 100 offices worldwide. Key overseas research and production hubs are based in Brazil, Germany, India and the United States.

The company has ventures in clean energy, with a focus on wind power.

Taiwan's unemployment rate was 3.87 percent in November, down 0.08 percent from October, and 0.04 percent lower year on year, the island's statistics agency said Thursday.

There were around 455,000 unemployed people in Taiwan at the end of November and 11.3 million in employment, according to a statement on the agency's website.

More university graduates landing jobs in the month were cited as the main reason for falling unemployment, the agency said.

The seasonally-adjusted rate of unemployment for the month was 3.84 percent, down 0.06 percent from October.