Recruiting in China

A job seeker receives interview at a job fair for postgraduates in Beijing, capital of China, Dec 18, 2014. About 18,000 opportunities were offered at the fair.

More young people set sights on growth opportunities, good salaries

For Chinese college students, jobs in the Chinese government or at State-owned enterprises, government-funded institutions and NGOs have become less and less appealing in the past three years.

Recent survey of online jobs site Zhaopin Ltd found that only 36 percent of Chinese college students still want to work within the "system", which refers to governments or government-related organizations in 2014.

The percentage was as high as 54 percent in 2012.

Among the top 10 employers of 2014 in the eye of college students, only two are State-owned enterprises?China Telecom and ZTE.

More and more college students prefer to work "outside the system", including in multinational companies, private companies or even their own startup business, the survey shows. Internet companies are gaining much more attention than before.

Liao Wenyu, a senior student at Beijing Normal University, said she prefers to work in a place where she can achieve her personal values instead of one where she is holding an "iron rice bowl".

"The parents' generation prefers to have jobs with a fixed income with no risk of bankruptcy and being laid off, so they'd like me to work as a civil servant or teacher, but I'd rather not," Liao said. "I care more about the work environment, opportunity for growth, and a salary that can support a decent life in modern cities like Beijing."

Wang Wenping, human resources director with Qihoo 360 Technology, said the company is trying to attract talent by encouraging innovation, which has proved good for talent recruiting as well as the ompany's development.

"The majority of our team is very young. The post-'80 generation accounts for most of our staff members," Wang said. "In our daily work, we will not put limitations on the work. For an example, if you have a good idea, you can report directly to the president."

Wang said the 360 portable Wi-Fi router is the result of innovation from a group of young people in their company.

"The president will also talk directly to the talented people we are interested in," Wang said. "We will not say that we are the best employer. People can find that out from the salaries we offer, the working environment as well as the attention they get from the high level."

Guo Sheng, CEO of Zhaopin Ltd, said the trend mentioned earlier in the article is closely related to the ongoing economic and industrial adjustment.

"The college students are not as keen to be civil servants or working for State-owned enterprises as before. I think this is a good trend. Because it means that private sector and even midsize and small enterprises are becoming more appealing," Guo said. "The means the monopoly of State-owned enterprises in certain fields is not as strong as before."

"Besides, China is also undergoing transformation to green and service-orientated industry and expects consumption to be the new engine of growth," added Guo. "This also has some effect on job election."

China may to ease investment rules in three new free trade zones (FTZs) in south China's Guangdong Province, southeast China's Fujian Province and north China's Tianjin Municipality and current Shanghai FTZ, if proposal to the effect is approved by the legislature.

The National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee will Friday debate on the proposal from the State Council to temporarily adjust regulations about administrative approvals in these FTZs.

Producing more than $453m worth of goods annually, companies in one county are adapting fast to change

Every year, as parents select the Christmas toys that could make them the world's best Mom and Dad, few will realize that the machines that made them, or the workers that packed them, were probably from eastern China.

More than 90 percent of the wooden toys produced in Yunhe county, in eastern Zhejiang province, are exported to the European Union and the United States.

With a toy production history dating back 40 years, the county now accounts for one-third of China's wooden toy exports.

Its 732 toy-making companies manufactured more than 2.77 billion yuan ($453.1 million) worth of toys last year, however, new challenges are mounting, most obviously the rising cost of labor and stagnating global demand.

"The time has passed when wooden toymakers made high and quick profits," said Lin Hongbing, chairman of Zhejiang Hongyuan Toy Co.

"Workers' wages are increasing by 10 percent each year, and it is impossible for us to raise the price of our products by that," he said.

Lin said that other costs, too, are rising, such as transportation and electricity. "Inevitably, as a result profit margins can only go lower and lower."

Statistics from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine show that China's toy exports were worth $24.73 billion in 2013, down 1.64 percent from 2012, as the global market for their goods stagnated.

"Overseas customers are much more cautious. Previously they would take a fixed number of products every year and often over-order, happy to cover that cost. Now they would place orders only for what they know they can sell," said Lin, whose company managed to maintain its normal export level in 2013, about 30 million yuan.

But many firms have not been so lucky.

The majority of the country's wooden toy-making companies are original equipment manufacturers?those that make parts or products that are used in another's end products?which means low added value, or the difference between the price of their finished products and the cost of making them, said Mao Fengming, secretary-general of the Yunhe toy association.

For a toy that is sold at $8 in the US, for instance, a producer in Yunhe is now likely to make around 20 cents.

"They have to upgrade their facilities and technologies to keep competitive on the international market," Mao said.

To move further up the value chain, many of Yunhe's toy producers have started to realize the importance of building their brands.

A decade ago, the country had just 11 recognized wooden toy brands; now there are more than 240, according to the toy association. But branding can be expensive.

Liao Fuxin, vice-president of the China Toy Association and president of Zhejiang Xinyun Wood Industry Group, Yunhe's largest wooden toy producer, said his company has 70 percent of its products made through OEMs, with 30 percent being its own brands. It is targeting parity in the two categories in the next two years.

Liao said compared with the company's own brands, OEM products bring about much higher margins. It also functions as an original design manufacturer for retailers such as US retail giants Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Costco Wholesale Corp. "We are in charge of the design and manufacturing process. But products have to be rebranded for specific target markets," he said.

Liao concedes that the business model might not be sustainable long term?but "we are trying to pitch our own brands to consumers whenever possible", he said.

Also vexing many of the toymakers are the frequent changes in technical standards of some of their target markets.

"The technical barriers to trade in the developed markets, especially, are adding hefty financial pressure. All the companies here are working hard to keep up, raising the safety standards of products," Liao said.

The EU makes the most frequent changes, according to Yao Ting, an official with the Lishui Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

The standards on the sounds produced by toys, for instance, have been revised twice in recent years. But despite the changing standards, the county has maintained a record on product safety, with not one single alert on quality issued from the EU or US for 60 consecutive months.

Yunhe is one of nine national quality and safety demonstration zones now certified by the AQSIQ for industrial export products.

"The changing standards and high requirements actually offer companies the opportunity to improve products quality," Liao said. "Without the technical barriers, Yunhe's toy industry would not have prospered as it has."

The standards expected of this often labor-intensive industry also mean that companies constantly remain under pressure to upgrade their equipment, an issue becoming all the most urgent as labor costs rise, and staff shortages grow.

More than 20,000 people, or one-fifth of the county's population, are employed in the toy industry, but fewer remain willing to do the work due to its often-tedious nature.

"Young people would not do this job. In most cases we can only recruit women in their 30s or 40s," said Lin Hongbing from Zhejiang Hongyuan Toy.

Many toymakers, including Lin's company, have automated some of their production, on painting, for instance.

Mike Sagan, supply chain director for the US-based toymaker KidKraft, which buys more than 2 million sets of toys from the county annually, believes Yunhe's competitive edge remains in the skill of its workers. But he also warns that its competitiveness could be lost without adequate investment in machinery and technology.

Hong Kong's stock market is forecast to raise 180 to 220 billion HK dollars (23 to 28 billion U.S. dollars) from about 110 IPOs next year, backed by a large pool of candidates seeking to be listed, according to a report by Deloitte China.

Seven to eight large-scale initial public offerings (IPO), mainly from financial institutions and pharmaceutical companies, are expected among Hong Kong's IPO activities, said the report.

The financial institutions include small and medium-sized banks, insurance companies, and brokerages that serve clients across the border, Deloitte said, adding that Internet financing and interest rate liberalization are spurring the new listings.

Hong Kong's IPO market performed well in 2014 and is expected to be the world's second-largest IPO venue for the second consecutive year.

Deloitte expects the A-share market on the Chinese mainland to have about 180 to 200 new listings and raise 100 to 120 billion yuan (16 to 19 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, given the regulator's plan to moderately increase IPO activities.

Small and medium IPOs from companies in the manufacturing, technology and consumer business sectors will play a crucial role in the market.

As for this year, Deloitte said though more companies completed their IPOs in the second half, the total number of IPOs and IPO funds raised in the year was still far behind those in 2012.

Pedestrians walk past a B&Q store near Tiantongyuan, a residential community in Beijing.

Kingfisher, the United Kingdom-based home improvements retailer, said on Monday that it had agreed to sell a 70 percent stake in its loss-making B&Q China business to Wumei Holdings Inc for 140 million pounds ($219 million), a move that is expected to boost Wumei's retail presence.

The agreement follows Kingfisher's announcement in March of its plans to look for a strategic partner to help develop its B&Q business in China, which is made up of 39 stores and employs 3,000.

"I am delighted to have found a strong retail partner who will help us realize the financial value of our business in China," said Véronique Laury, chief executive of Kingfisher. The transaction will enable Kingfisher to focus on its main businesses in Europe, including the UK market leader B&Q and Castorama in France, said Laury.

Kingfisher, which has B&Q and Screwfix in the UK and Castorama and Brico Depot in France, is Europe's biggest home improvement retailer.

Beijing-based Wumei, the leading retail chain store operator, has a retail network of about 650 supermarkets under the brand of Wumart and 10 department stores in northern, eastern and western China.

The deal is subject to approval by the Ministry of Commerce, and if approved, is likely to be completed during the first half of next year.

Jason Yu, general manager of Kantar Worldpanel China, a global consumer information provider, said the bold step will help Wumart move into the highly fragmented and competitive home improvement sector. "But Wumart will have to learn how to survive in the challenging home improvement sector," he said.

Wumart had a 6.7 percent value share in the North China region's grocery retailing sector, Kantar Worldpanel said, adding that the year-on-year growth trend was more or less flat, despite it being the top retailer in the region.

As one of the key local players in the China grocery sector, Wumart has faced several challenges, including cutthroat competition from the e-commerce sector.

Yu said such deals are common in the retail sector. "B&Q may be able to leverage on the local market expertise of Wumart," he said. "The combined group will have larger scale as well as a stronger eco-system, a shopping center with both Wumart hypermarket as well as B&Q store, and better negotiation power and property portfolio. It will also allow Wumart to expand their business in regions where they do not currently have a presence."

In 2012, Home Depot Inc, the largest home-improvement retailer in the United States, closed its remaining seven big box stores in China after it decided to shift its focus to specialty and online outlets in China.

Yu said Western home improvement retailers rely very much on the do-it-yourself concept?consumers buy the raw material and do the home improvement at home. However this does not work well in China as consumers typically rely on home improvement specialists to do the work.

Though B&Q and some other Western retailers started to offer these kind of services at their stores, it was not as competitive as other players. Most of the Western retailers had fewer stores and relatively weaker negotiation power with suppliers. As a result, they are also not able to offer advantageous prices, Yu said.

He said the recent cooling down of the real-estate market has led to weaker demand for home improvement-related work. Within the home improvement sector, the only successful example is Sweden's Ikea that really wins based on the unique customer experiences it creates, he said.

The number of full-time hotel employees in China's Macao Special Administrative Region reached 45,584 at the end of the third quarter of 2014, up 2.6 percent year-on-year, official figures showed on Thursday.[Special coverage]

According to the Statistics and Census Service, the average earnings of the hotel employees in September rose by 10.7 percent year-on-year to 15,750 patacas (1,972 US dollars).

Restaurants in the region registered 23,831 full-time employees at the end of September, up 9.3 percent, with their average earnings growing 8.4 percent year-on-year.

The number of employees of the financial sector stood at 6,530 full-time employees at the end of the third quarter, an increase of 2.7 percent.

Experts say the increase of employees in the non-gaming sectors could be seen as an indicator of Macao's efforts to diversify its gambling-dominated economy.0 In the region with a population of around 630,000, the gaming industry accounts for about 80 percent of its revenue.