Recruiting in China

Anbang Insurance Group Co raised its stake in China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd to 19.28 percent last week, according to a disclosure published on Monday by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

For Anbang, which is spending more on real estate and financial services investments, it was the ninth share increase in the country's biggest private lender over the last three months.

China Minsheng shares gained 1 percent in Shanghai trading to close at 10.49 yuan ($1.75). The stock has gained about 70 percent over the last three months.

In December 2014, the Beijing-based insurer raised its stake in Chinese property firm Financial Street Holdings Co to 20 percent, while increasing its shareholding in China Merchants Bank Co Ltd to 10 percent.

A job hunter scans the code at a recruitment fair in Handan, Hebei province. Job ads are being seen more frequently in social media such as micro blogs and WeChat, in recent years.

With social media engaging massive numbers of users in China, platforms like WeChat and micro blogs are increasingly being used as recruitment tools.

Job ads from private recruiters and companies are seen more frequently on micro blogs and WeChat, a sign that Chinese employers have begun to embrace social media recruitment, a move that helps them tap into a larger pool of talent.

"The use of WeChat and micro-blogging is becoming a popular way to recruit. It's fashionable among recruiters who have accounts on social media platforms," Zhu Hongyan, a senior career consultant at Zhaopin, an employment website, told China Daily.

"Using social media enables recruiters to reach out to a wider audience more effectively, given that such platforms have become the major information-sharing tool among the prime working age population," Zhu said.

WeChat enables 468 million monthly active users in the third quarter of last year, while micro blog users surpassed 275 million, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

WeChat enable users to assemble a huge number of contacts and access a large audience.

Smile Xu, managing director at sports marketing agency Miles Group, posted a job ad for an account manager on her WeChat account in early December and quickly received a dozen resumes.

"Though the number of interested applicants was fewer than expected, they were of better quality compared with traditional recruitment," said Xu, who regularly posts photos of work and events her agency promotes.

"At least people understand what they are applying for," she said. "Friends, acting as matchmakers, will brief potential candidates they know about a job because they are in the same field and know what the job entails."

Fu Zhu, the former recruitment head of e-commerce giant Jingdong, said the traditional hiring channel is facing the challenge of cost and quality, as social recruiting through platforms like WeChat and LinkedIn provides a more time-effective channel.

"Using traditional methods, we can only select from active candidates who send resumes for certain positions. But in China, more skilled employees are passive candidates who can be better reached through social recruiting channels," said Fu.

Rather than submitting resumes randomly at job fairs and on employment sites, job seekers can now reach recruiters directly and take advantage of targeted job referrals.

"In my WeChat group talk, classmates, teachers and some alumni constantly forward selected employment information related to my specialty, which helps me to target employers more effectively," said Zeng Qinbing, a senior student at Dongguan University of Technology in Guangdong province.

However, high-profile employers in China appear to prefer the traditional approach to recruitment.

In August 2014, Maximum Employment Marketing Group conducted research on the status of WeChat recruitment for Fortune 500 companies.

While 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies operate in China, only 7 percent have set up specific career accounts on WeChat, and of those, only 19 percent support direct application through WeChat.

"Despite the growing awareness, social media recruiting remains in the early adoption phase," said Zhaopin consultant Zhu.

Profitability of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) was squeezed in 2014 amid slackening momentum in the economy as it registered the weakest growth since 1990.

Combined profits of SOEs reached 2.48 trillion yuan (404.66 billion US dollars), up 3.4 percent from one year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Thursday.

The growth slowed from 4.5 percent reported in the first 11 months last year and 5.9 percent in 2013.

Business revenue climbed 4 percent year on year to 48.06 trillion yuan while operating costs rose at a faster pace of 4.5 percent to 46.66 trillion yuan.

By the end of December, total assets gained 12.1 percent from the beginning of 2014 to 102.12 trillion yuan while liabilities grew 12.2 percent to 66.56 trillion yuan, the ministry said.

It said auto making and pharmaceutical industries posted strong profit increases, while sectors such as coal mining and chemicals saw notable declines in profits.

Multinational companies' increased interest in the Chinese market and the rapid expansion of domestic companies will boost job prospects and salaries in the country this year, a new survey said on Wednesday.

According to the Salary Survey 2015 released by global recruitment specialist Robert Walters, Chinese employees who plan to change jobs in 2015 can expect their salaries to go up by 15 to 25 percent on average, while those who choose to stay may see wage increases of about 6 to 8 percent.

Employees in Beijing working in industries like accounting and finance, human resources, and marketing can expect a 20 percent growth in wages if they opt for a new company. Professionals working in sales, as well as in engineering-related research and development sectors are likely to see their salaries increase by up to 30 percent.

Employees in Shanghai can expect salary increases of around 20 percent if they are looking for new opportunities in sectors like finance and accounting, banking, human resources, information technology and sales.

The survey expects pharmaceutical and chemical industries to be the top hirers this year, with employees working in the operations and manufacturing sectors of these two industries expected to realize salary hikes of about 30 percent if they switch to another company.

Sales professionals in the luxury industry will see little growth in salaries this year due to the industry stagnancy.

Even though the rising salaries of Chinese professionals have prompted concerns about rising labor costs in China, Alistair Cox, chief executive officer of global recruitment firm Hays Plc, said it is needless to worry about the fewer opportunities. On the other hand, Cox finds it a good signal as the economy is becoming more developed, people are getting more disposable income and standards of living are improving.

"There is a massive domestic market as well, which in many ways is under-leveraged," he said.

Though the number of employees planning to switch jobs is set to drop slightly from the level seen in 2014, it still remained quite high, with over 71 percent of the 2,448 respondents keen on a change.

The competition for qualified talent, preferably those with overseas working experience, solid knowledge of the domestic market, and higher bilingual proficiency, will be even more intense in 2015 among multinational companies, aggregated by the fact that a growing number of multinational companies are moving their regional headquarters to first-tier cities, said Wang Qiang, managing director of Robert Walters China.

Domestic companies are not lagging behind. In order to hire qualified candidates, a large number of them are providing competitive salaries and compensation packages, as well as equity incentive plans. As a result, some experienced professionals have given top priority to domestic companies, said Wang.

ZTE Corp, China's biggest listed telecommunications equipment maker, yesterday posted a 94 percent jump in net profit in 2014 due to surging demand for 4G network equipment and high profit margins from growing sales of smartphones overseas.

Its net profit totaled 2.63 billion yuan (US$423 million) last year. Revenue reached 81.2 billion yuan, up 7.99 percent, ZTE said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday.

The rapid development of 4G services in 2014 fueled the demand for 4G base stations.

By November, China boasted 75 million 4G users. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have built a total of 700,000 base stations, surpassing an original target of 500,000 stations.

On the other hand, ZTE expanded business in overseas smartphone markets which offer higher profit margins compared with the domestic market.

ZTE aims to double sales to 20 million units in the US market this year.

The company also plans to surpass LG to become the No. 3 US smartphone vendor within two or three years, according to Cheng Lixin, chief executive of ZTE North America.

China's new yuan-denominated lending in 2014 hit record high at 9.78 trillion yuan (1.58 trillion U.S. dollars), up 890 billion yuan from one year earlier, latest data showed on Thursday.

In December, banks' new lending reached 697.3 billion yuan ,up 214.9 billion yuan from the same month of 2013, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank.

M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 12.2 percent year on year to 122.84 trillion yuan at the end of December, according to the PBOC.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, rose 3.2 percent year on year to 34.81 trillion yuan at the end of December.

Total social financing in 2014 stood at 16.46 trillion yuan, 859.8 billion yuan less than 2013, according to data released by the central bank.