China's employment service websites are reporting that IT
talents and private enterprises were the hottest tickets in the job
market in the first quarter of this year.
Online applications for jobs soared following the Lunar New
Year, or Spring Festival holiday, leaping from 4.8 million in
January to 8.7 million in March, according to one leading website.
The average number of people competing for one job in January was
just 14.2; in March, the number swelled to 26.4.
In the first quarter, 22.2 percent of jobs offered were in the
IT sector, including those for systems analysts and a variety of
engineering positions.
Foreign enterprises are showing particularly robust demand for
IT professionals, and those who can speak fluent Japanese or Korean
and English have a strong advantage. Multilingual candidates also
have an edge in technical support, customer service and telephone
sales.
Japanese companies are offering positions in Japan to Chinese
software engineers.
A variety of jobs in the Internet industry are emerging strongly
this year, including payment platform products planner, e-mail
products operator, bidding manager and wireless business media
planner.
Meanwhile, national policies that benefit private enterprises
have accelerated demand in the private sector. Senior technicians,
salespeople, project and operations managers are all highly sought
after by corporations.
The top five qualities that jobseekers are looking for now are
upward mobility; salary and benefits; training opportunities; sound
management philosophy; and a fair awards system. Private
enterprises are more likely to offer such advantages as flexible
management, high efficiency and room to move up in the world.
(China.org.cn by Wang Sining April 12, 2005)