Competition for white-collar jobs became fiercer in the third quarter, with more than 35 job seekers contending for the same position on average.
This is a jump from 26 and 29 in the first and second quarters this year, a Chinese human resources website said on Tuesday.
Zhaopin.com's third-quarter jobs report for white-collar workers showed that demand for talent was shrinking with the slowdown of China's economic growth. At the same time, more such workers were considering changing jobs, leading to more competition among job hunters, especially those in Northeast China and in second-tier cites.
In Zhaopin's competition index for major cities, Shenyang and Dalian, both in Liaoning province, and Changchun, Jilin province-all in Northeast China-ranked first, fourth and eighth.
Zhu Hongyan, chief career consultant for the website, said the career structure in the northeastern region has been constantly improving because of economic restructuring.
Moreover, second-tier cities such as Chengdu, Sichuan province, Suzhou, Jiangsu province, Xi'an, Shaanxi province, and Tianjin are all among the top 10 cities with the most competitive job market.
Zhu, the career consultant, said the trend of white collar workers shifting their jobs to fast-developing second-or third-tier cities has become more prominent because of the high pressures of working and living in larger cities, deteriorating environments and restrictions on cars and housing.
"Regional preferential policies have helped second-and third-tier cities attract overflow industries and companies from the overcrowded metropolises, which have their own restrictions such as limited land and other resources," Zhu said.
"However, second-and third-tier cities do not have the same mature economic structure and industries as the metropolises," added Zhu. "So not all job seekers can find satisfactory jobs."
Ranking based on the index to measure and demonstrate competition in the job market in major cities in Q3:
Competition for white-collar jobs became fiercer in the third quarter, with more than 35 job seekers contending for the same position on average.
