China Labor Market Competition Eased by 6.3% in the Second Quarter of 2016

BEIJING, July 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Zhaopin Limited (NYSE: ZPIN) ("Zhaopin" or the "Company"), a leading career platform in China focused on connecting users with relevant job opportunities throughout their career lifecycles, released its 2016 summer report on China labor market supply and demand for white-collar workers. The report found that labor market competition for white-collar workers eased by 6.3% in the second quarter with an average of 45 applications per vacancy, down from 48 in the first quarter.

Overall market supply and demand for white-collar workers

Zhaopin publishes the competitive index for the labor market based on data collected from its online platform. The competitive index is calculated with the number of resume applications divided by the number of job vacancies. For the second quarter of 2016, the competitive index was 45.1, which means there were an average of 45 applications per job vacancy.

The competition in the labor market has eased in the second quarter, compared with the competitive index of 48 in the first quarter. Traditionally the first quarter, especially after the Spring Festival, is the most active season for changing jobs. Most white-collar workers intending to change jobs have already found new positions, while many college graduates also have confirmed their job offers in the first quarter, which led to a decline in job applications in the second quarter.

(Competive Index = number of applications/number of job vacancies)

Beijing is the most competitive city for white-collar workers with a Competitive Index of 74.2 in the second quarter, followed by Chengdu (69), Shenyang (68.9), and Shenzhen (55.8), respectively. All of the top 10 are first-tier cities or close to first-tier cities, which indicates large cities are still very attractive to talented workers. These top cities offer a large number of jobs, but the competition is also the most intense.

The least competitive cities are Ningbo (15.1), Nanning (16.6) and Foshan (17.9), respectively. These cities are either less attractive to white-collar workers due to local economic development, or overshadowed by nearby, larger first-tier cities.

White-collar workers are more interested in state-owned enterprises (55.8), public companies (54) and wholly foreign-owned enterprises (51.4), respectively. Private companies (43.1) and public institutions (39.3) are less attractive to white-collar job seekers.

In terms of employer size, companies with 1,000 to 9,999 employees are the most competitive (54.1), followed by companies with 500 to 999 employees (50.5), and companies with 100 to 499 employees (49.7), respectively. Micro and small-sized companies are not very attractive to white-collar workers because these companies are not well established and stable.

Supply and demand by sector

The top three sectors with the most demand for white-collar workers are internet/e-commerce, funds/securities/futures/investment, and real estate/construction/building materials/engineering. The top-10 sector ranking is almost the same as that in the first quarter, except media/publishing/movie and TV/culture communications has replaced advertising/event/PR.

The most competitive sector in the second quarter is online games with 72.8 applications per vacancy, followed by real estate/construction/building materials/engineering (72.4), and aviation/aerospace research and manufacturing (58.7). With government support and huge investment from the capital market, the online games industry has been witnessing remarkable growth in recent years. The huge demand also leads to an influx of talents, heating up the competition.

The least competitive sectors in the second quarter are insurance (19.2), agency service (26.4) and office supplies and equipment (30.3). The market in China always has bias toward the insurance industry, pushing it to the bottom in most job reports and surveys. The hot real estate market has created huge demand for agency jobs, which has alleviated the competition.

The sectors with the most job applications in the second quarter are internet/e-commerce, real estate/construction/building materials/engineering, and funds/securities/futures/investment, which is in line with the sectors that have the most job demand. Internet/e-commerce have been transforming society and have a huge impact on people's daily lives. The sector has enormous demand for talents and is also attracting massive numbers of white-collar workers to join the bandwagon.

Supply and demand by occupation

The top occupations with the most vacancies for white-collar workers in the second quarter are sales, administration/logistics/secretary, and software/internet development/system integration.

The most competitive occupation in the second quarter is finance/auditing/tax with 107.7 applications per vacancy, followed by civil engineering/construction/decoration/municipal engineering (106.7), transportation services (85.5), and HR (78.7).

The least competitive occupations are healthcare/beauty/hairdressing/bodybuilding (11.3), followed by insurance (15.4), community/residency/housekeeping (16.8), and sales (18.3), respectively.

The occupation with the most job applications in the second quarter is software/internet development/system integration. Finance/auditing/tax, and administration/logistics/secretary are ranked second and third, respectively.

Salary analysis

For the 34 key cities monitored by Zhaopin, the average monthly salary for online positions in the second quarter is 7,233 yuan, a slight increase from 7,018 yuan in the first quarter. Beijing is the city with the highest pay, with an average monthly salary of 9,240 yuan, followed by Shanghai (8,962 yuan), Shenzhen (8,315 yuan) and Guangzhou (7,409 yuan), respectively. As the most developed regions in the country, first-tier cities offer the best salaries for white-collar workers. Due to the economic slump, cities in the Northeast are among the lowest in salaries.

The best-paying sector in the second quarter continues to be professional service/consulting (finance and accounting, legal and HR, etc.) with an average salary of 10,362 yuan, followed by agency service (9,844 yuan) and funds/securities/futures/investment (9,059 yuan). Professional service/consulting offer the best pay because of the specialized know-how and the high pressure of job requirements.

The top three occupations with the highest salaries in the second quarter are senior management (18,608 yuan), IT management/project coordination (13,407 yuan) and securities/futures/investment management and services (10,345 yuan), which is the same as the previous quarter.

Among different types of companies, joint ventures offer the highest salary (8,049 yuan), higher than private companies (7,368 yuan) and public companies (7,184 yuan). The average salary of public institutions is the lowest at 6,394 yuan. The average salary at all types of companies, except public companies, recorded slight increases compared with the first quarter 2016. The average salary at private companies surpassed that of public companies in the second quarter.

Except for companies with more than 10,000 employees, the smaller the company, the higher the salary. The average salary of micro-sized companies with fewer than 20 employees is the highest at 8,443 yuan. The average salaries at other companies are all below 8,000 yuan. More and more companies are restructuring and raising salary packages to attract talented workers. Smaller companies are the first to take action. With disadvantages in brands and training, smaller companies are paying higher salaries and offering more benefits to compete for talents with larger companies.

About Zhaopin Limited

Zhaopin is a leading career platform in China, focusing on connecting users with relevant job opportunities throughout their career lifecycle. The Company's zhaopin.com website is the most popular career platform in China as measured by average daily unique visitors in each of the 12 months ended March 31, 2016, number of registered users as of March 31, 2016 and number of unique customers for the three months ended March 31, 2016. The Company's over 115.3 million registered users include diverse and educated job seekers who are at various stages of their careers and are in demand by employers as a result of the general shortage of skilled and educated workers in China. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, approximately 25.6 million job postings^[1] were placed on Zhaopin's platform by 418,423 unique customers including multinational corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises and state-owned entities. The quality and quantity of Zhaopin's users and the resumes in the Company's database attract an increasing number of customers. This in turn leads to more users turning to Zhaopin as their primary recruitment and career- related services provider, creating strong network effects and significant entry barriers for potential competitors. For more information, please visit http://www.zhaopin.com.

Safe Harbor Statements

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For more information, please contact:

Zhaopin Limited 
Ms. Daisy Wang 
Investor Relations 
[email protected]

ICR Beijing
Mr. Edmond Lococo
Phone: +86 10 6583-7510
[email protected]

SOURCE Zhaopin Limited