Chinese Job Fairs Make Come Back amidst Timid Applicants

Monitoring Desk

ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: China’s job fairs have made a comeback after being forced online by Covid-19 for three years, but subdued wages and less abundant offerings in sectors exposed to weakening external demand point to the uneven and guarded economic recovery.

Authorities have announced hundreds of events across China. This month, China is returning to its pre-Covid way of life and youth unemployment, a primary headache for Beijing, may ease from its near 20 per cent peak.

In a country of 1.4 billion citizens, job fairs are one of the most efficient ways for employers and workers to connect. Although attendees said their long-awaited return was encouraging, some needed more confidence.

“I only pray for a stable job and don’t have high salary expectations,” said Liu Liangliang, 24, who was looking for a job in the hotel or property management company at a fair in Beijing on Thursday, one of more than 40 held in the capital in February. “The covid-19 outbreak has hurt many people. There would be more job seekers battling for offers this year.”

The survey of about 50,000 white-collar workers published by Zhaopin, one of China’s biggest recruiting firms, showed 47.3 percent of respondents worried they might lose their jobs that year, up from 39.8 percent a year ago.

About 60 percent cited the “uncertain economic environment” as the main factor affecting their confidence, up from 48.4 percent in 2022.

Job confidence of those working in the consumer-facing field, which is recovering faster from a low base, was higher than in sectors such as manufacturing, affected by weakening external demand, and property, which has just started to show tentative signs of stabilizing, the survey showed.