Fourth quarter offers bright job prospects

China's employment outlook for the fourth quarter ranked first globally with half of its employers planning to hire more staff, according to a report released by employment service provider Manpower Inc on Tuesday.

The outlook marked the sixth straight quarter of growth since the third quarter of 2009, and is the strongest since China was first included in the quarterly employment outlook survey in the second quarter of 2005.

About 53 percent of employers intend to increase their workforces in the fourth quarter - a "considerable" improvement of 22 percentage points compared to the third quarter, said the report.

Manpower interviewed 4,194 companies in the mainland to measure employers' intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their organizations between October and December.

The percentage of employers who expect to reduce their headcount in the upcoming quarter stands at 2 percent.

Removing seasonal variations, the Net Employment Outlook, the difference between the percentage of those who plan to increase their workforce and those who plan to reduce their headcount, stands at 47 percent for the mainland, a 16 percentage point increase quarter-over-quarter and 39 percentage points stronger compared with the same period of 2009.

"Many enterprises in which no changes in workforces were anticipated in the third quarter, have now decided to add to their workforces in the fourth quarter, which demonstrates that employer confidence continues to grow," said Yuan Jianhua, managing director of Manpower China, adding that job seekers would benefit from the most vigorous hiring pace that Chinese employers have ever reported.

At least 60 percent of employers plan to add to their workforces in Hangzhou, Chengdu, Changsha and Suzhou, showing the strongest rebound among the 16 cities surveyed in China.