The latest Gallup survey says that Americans are more pessimistic about their job market while Chinese are more optimistic about theirs. Therefore, it’s a good time to understand the latest job trends in the Chinese job market and see if there is real reason for these results.

Trend 1 -- Naked Quitting

As many as 30-40% of Chinese young people are actually leaving their jobs without finding a new position first. This is interesting because the job market in China is very competitive, and thus it wouldn’t seem like the wisest choice. Young Chinese do it anyway!

In such a competitive market one would expect people to hold their jobs, but a growing number of young Chinese choose differently. They are not willing to compromise for a low paying job or one they don’t like.

It’s a growing group of white collar employees. They expect more in terms of salary and also want to do something that interests them not just a job. Despite the rough competition, they decide they are not joining the race until they are ready to compete on their terms.

Wages have gone up by 9.2% and the number of job position offers has increased dramatically. In the five most popular industries in China, between the months of January to November 2011 there was an increase of 150% to 1000% in the number of jobs offered! Good news! Huh?

Well, not for foreigners. The Chinese government have recognized that foreigners are taking their local workers positions and frankly don’t need foreigners as much as they once did. It’s almost impossible to get a job in China if you are a fresh graduate. Fortunately, there is a solution, which is quite costly but worth it if working in China is your thing. So, here is the next trend for you…

Trend 2 -- The foreign interns are coming

In this matter the market is booming. Foreign interns are coming to China in growing numbers. A typical intern would be an undergrad or grad student who wishes to use his summer time more efficiently and gain work experience in China. As the agencies are also supplying Chinese learning courses along with the internship program, it’s a good deal.

Internships are offered in various fields and lengths. Most hiring companies ask for a minimum 3-month obligation from the intern, but it’s possible to find internships even only for a single month, and up to a year long. In the longer internship programs the intern would be paid a larger salary (called a “stipend”) and have more chance of being offered a position afterwards.

The agencies arranging such internships report on growing numbers of interns joining different internship programs. This happens for a number of reasons:

  1. Europe and the US are not the best places to find a job today.
  2. It’s getting more and more difficult to find a job in China as well. This is especially true for fresh graduates, as mentioned, but not only. So an internship is a good way to actually get a job in China, as starting as an intern can often lead the hiring company to offer the intern a job, and if not, at least give the intern a chance to look for a job within China while there.
  3. More and more potential interns are willing to pay for a service of placing them and arranging everything a foreign student/graduate/intern needs.

And still, foreigners are challenged by the next trend…

Trend 3 – the Chinese Ivy League fresh graduate has landed

Young Chinese professionals understand that their best way of developing themselves to have an advantage over other candidates in the Chinese job market is having a western higher education. So, they work very hard to be accepted into western universities.

As an example, my wife is tutoring a Chinese high school graduate studying for a whole year for his TOEFL exam. She is just the supplementary teacher to help him work on his pronunciation and accent. He has another teacher for the grammar and vocabulary. He moved to Beijing solely for this with the purpose of getting into an American college. It’s a real issue in China.

So, who then would a local employer prefer to hire? A foreigner with a western education but who is culturally different and has little language skills or a young Chinese that knows the culture and language and has the same western education. It’s a no-brainer!

But there’s some hope…

Trend 4 – How about adding some talent management?!

Here is something that is still missing in China and could be an advantage for foreign managers. Chinese companies are still less successful in growing their managers from within the company.

This happens due to mistakes in the recruiting process and decisions based on irrelevant criterions. The fault in this process causes unsuitable candidates to arrive in the company, which then have less potential of becoming the future managers. This is often also the case in Western companies, but in China the problem is much wider, and so Chinese companies are less successful in growing in house managers, which gives their Western managers an advantage.

Michelle LaVallee was referring to this matter on a webinar we had. Michelle is using a method called “Topgrading” for evaluating new candidates. She said she sees a lot of companies in China make these recruiting mistakes and act this way.

So, this is still good news for foreigners, but you always have trend 3, which is causing this to change.

Different types of people that China is missing are creative/innovative people, which is also changing, but still trend #5 has been prominent in the Chinese job market for the past 1-2 years…

Trend 5 – Wanted: Creative people

Modern China has been known for duplicating stuff, but lacking the innovation for creating new things. One can still see many positions, in creative fields such as architecture, design and the like.

These kinds of positions are very prominent on classified ad boards, but as mentioned before, this is changing. Those Western-educated Chinese young graduates are returning to China. They are fully charged with innovative ideas and ready to head back and conquer.