Internet changing shape of the job market

Graduates needed to promote businesses online and tap into 'psychology' of social media

The e-commerce boom in China has generated a need for talent in the first quarter of this year and created more job opportunities for graduates, according to a survey by one of the country's biggest recruitment websites.

The survey of 16,978 businesses across 61 industries was conducted by 51job.com from September to December. It found that 82.3 percent plan to recruit more employees than during the same period last year.

Employers in e-commerce, computer software and finance showed the biggest need for talent.

Three-quarters of the surveyed employers said they had job openings for applicants with less than two years' seniority, a higher figure than ever before in the web site's surveys.

As usual, a recruitment peak followed the end of Spring Festival this year. The labor-intensive manufacturers in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta used to be the biggest recruiters in previous years. However, the demand for talent in Internet marketing, technology support and creative design for e-commerce has been growing fast since last year, according to Feng Lijuan, chief consultant at 51job.com.

"On one hand, many enterprises have to adapt the way they do business to the tide of e-commerce and want professionals to pursue the new business," Feng said.

"On the other, small and medium-sized startups that provide professional services in advertising, creative design and IT research and development for e-commerce are springing up and have become a major recruiter in the jobs market."

The retail trade is undergoing an evident transformation of the way of doing business, she said. Big retail chains are shifting their focus from brick-and-mortar business to online sales, closing some of their physical stores.

"From marketing to the display of goods, running an online mall is quite different from running a physical store. The retail chains also need to recruit plenty of manpower to build a widespread delivery network and ensure prompt online customer service," Feng said.

Jenny Chen, a senior HR manager at the China office of a European clothing retailer, said her company will see a year-on-year growth of 15 percent in recruitment in the first quarter of this year.

The clothing retailer has nearly 400 direct-sale stores and more than 300 agencies in China and is going to open more this year, but the year-on-year growth in recruitment for the online business in this year's first quarter is bigger than that for the offline business.

"We want to build a stable e-commerce team in the coming three years, so we have a lot of job openings for those who can help promote our online shop and launch our business on social media and mobile apps," Chen said.

As for the startup bandwagon, it is expected to keep on rolling for another three to five years and bring abundant job opportunities, especially to young people, according to Li Tongjinna, a consultant in the Internet industry at the Beijing office of RMG Selection, an international human resources and recruitment consultancy.

"Traditional IT enterprises such as IBM and Oracle have been significantly cutting their head counts since the second half of 2013, while startups specializing in e-commerce and mobile Internet pour onto the jobs market," Li said.

"About half of the job openings that I'm seeking employees for are emerging professions such as building online payment platforms and marketing through social media," she added.

"Young people have an edge in competing for these jobs because they shop online often and know the consumer psychology in e-commerce well," Li said. "Besides, they are familiar with social media like We Chat and Weibo."

xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn

Graduates attend a job fair at South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on March 20. Zou Zhongpin / China Daily