Zhaopin Report Found China's Working Women Less Keen on Childbearing

BEIJING, May 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Zhaopin Limited (NYSE: ZPIN) ("Zhaopin" or the "Company"), a leading career platform[1] in China focused on connecting users with relevant job opportunities throughout their career lifecycle, today released its 2017 report on the current situation of working mothers in China. The report found that women in the workplace were less keen to have children because of work pressure and rising expenses.

Zhaopin conducted its 2017 survey of working mothers to understand their childbearing intentions, the impact of childbearing on career development, and benefits and provisions for raising babies. More than 40,200 people participated in this survey this year.

Highlights of Zhaopin's 2017 report on working mothers:

• For working women with no children, 40.1% were reluctant to have children, almost double the 20.48% figure for last year. For women who already have one child, 62.7% didn't want to have a second child.
• The top reasons for reluctance to have children were "not enough time and energy" (41.9%), "too expensive to raise children" (36.9%), and "concerns over career development" (35.2%).
• About 63.4% of women in the workplace believed that childbearing would have a large impact on their career development, compared with only 48.6% of men who believed so.
• Before childbearing, women in the workplace were more concerned about salary (76.5%), work environment (46.4%), and distance from work (45.9%) when selecting employers. After childbearing, working mothers gave priority to distance from work (81.0%), salary (68.7%), and work pressure (49.7%).
• After returning to work, the needs of working mothers included flexible working hours (70.5%), family first after work hours (62.1%), and higher salaries (41.1%).
• About 32.5% of women saw that their salaries decline after childbearing in 2017, compared with 24.2% for 2016. Meanwhile, 36.1% of women found that their positions were lowered after childbearing in 2017, up from 26.6% in 2016.
• About 66.0% of working mothers felt depressed after childbearing. 65.3% believed that returning to work would relieve the depression, while 13.8% said that going back to work actually deepened their depression.
• For women in the workplace, their biggest concerns about childbearing were difficulty in returning to work after childbearing (52.5%), and being replaced by others (48.9%).
• The majority of working mothers (67.9%) in China would not consider becoming stay-at-home moms. Key reasons included psychological imbalance by isolation from society (79.0%), pressure from life (65.4%), and negative impact on relationships (58.6%).

Low willingness for childbearing

In the Zhaopin survey this year, nearly 50% of female participants had no children, 43.3% had one child and 7% had two or more children.

Among women with no children, 40.1% were reluctant to have children at the moment, almost double the 20.48% figure for last year.

The top reasons for reluctance to have children were "not enough time and energy" (41.9%), "too expensive to raise children" (36.9%), and "concerns over career development" (35.2%).

Among women who already have one child, 62.7% didn't want to have a second child, while 22.5% intended to have a second baby.

Impact of childbearing on career development

About 63.4% of women in the workplace believe that childbearing would have a large impact on their career development, compared with only 48.6% of men who believed so.

For women in different age groups, those born in the 1980s saw the most impact on their career development from childbearing, followed by women born in the 1990s.

Zhaopin's survey found that 32.5% of women saw their salaries decline after childbearing in 2017, compared with 24.2% for 2016.

About 36.1% of women found that their positions were lowered after childbearing in 2017, up from 26.6% in 2016.

For women in the workplace, their biggest concerns about childbearing were difficulty in returning to work after childbearing (52.5%), positions replaced by others (48.9%) and lowered personal value (46.6%).

After returning to work, the needs of working mothers included flexible working hours (70.5%), family first after work hours (62.1%), and higher salaries (41.1%).

Working mothers were more occupied with children and family, which would hold back their career development, the Zhaopin survey found. Working mothers were primarily worried about children's education (68.0%), children's health (64.8%) and pressure from daily expenses (51.0%).

Before childbearing, women in the workplace were more concerned about salary (76.5%), work environment (46.4%), and distance from work (45.9%) when selecting employers. After childbearing, working mothers gave priority to distance from work (81.0%), salary (68.7%), and work pressure (49.7%).

After returning to work, 46.3% of working mothers already changed jobs, and 38.9% had the intention to change jobs without action yet.

For career decisions after childbearing, 77.1% of working mothers would change jobs because work was too far away from home, and 38.6% would refuse challenging jobs for family reasons.

Support for working mothers

Zhaopin's survey found that 66.0% of working mothers felt depressed after childbearing.

About 65.3% of working mothers believed that returning to work would relieve the depression, while 13.8% said that going back to work actually deepened their depression.

The benefits for nursing mothers in the workplace in China included one-hour off for breastfeeding each day, no termination of employment contract, no business trips and no over time. More men (41.9%) than women (28.3%) believed that their employers did not provide any benefits for nursing mothers because men often ignored or paid little attention to such benefits offered to nursing mothers.

As to suggestions for maternity leave, 48.6% of women in the workplace suggested extending the leave. 44.7% of women and 53.8% of men wanted to share maternity leave between parents, allowing fathers to take such leave. The survey found that men were more willing to take the responsibility to care for children and family.

Zhaopin found that the majority of working mothers (67.9%) in China would not consider becoming stay-at-home moms.

Key reasons that prevented working mothers from becoming stay-at-home moms included psychological imbalance by isolation from society (79.0%), pressure from life (65.4%), and negative impact on relationship (58.6%).

About 60.2% of working mothers believed it was difficult to return to work, but they could manage to overcome the difficulty. Meanwhile, 27.3% believed it was difficult to go back to work and they would feel it hard to adjust.

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 December 31, 2016, number of registered users as of December 31, 2016 and number of unique customers[2] for the three months ended December 31, 2016. The Company's over 129.5 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, 2016, approximately 36.9 million job postings[3] were placed on Zhaopin's platform by 509,813 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

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Zhaopin may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Zhaopin's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements that involve factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: Zhaopin's goals and strategies; its future business development, financial condition and results of operations; its ability to retain and grow its user and customer base for its online career platform; the growth of, and trends in, the markets for its services in China; the demand for and market acceptance of its brand and services; competition in its industry in China; its ability to maintain the network infrastructure necessary to operate its website and mobile applications; relevant government policies and regulations relating to the corporate structure, business and industry; and its ability to protect its users' information and adequately address privacy concerns. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date of the press release, and Zhaopin does not undertake any obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

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]

[1] Zhaopin's website is the most popular career platform in China as measured by average daily unique visitors in each of the 12 months ended December 31, 2016, the number of registered users as of December 31, 2016 and the number of unique customers for the three months ended December 31, 2016.

[2] A "unique customer" refers to a customer that purchases the Company's online recruitment services during a specified period. Zhaopin makes adjustments for multiple purchases by the same customer to avoid double counting. Each customer is assigned a unique identification number in the Company's information management system. Affiliates and branches of a given customer may, under certain circumstances, be counted as separate unique customers.

[3] Zhaopin calculates the number of job postings by counting the number of newly placed job postings during each respective period. Job postings that were placed prior to a specified period - even if available during such period - are not counted as job postings for such period. Any particular job posting placed on the Company's website may include more than one job opening or position.

SOURCE Zhaopin Limited