Survey: confidence strong in job market

People in Shanghai showed stronger confidence in employment as the Job-Seeker Confidence Index increased to 137.4 this year, up 4.2 points from last year, according to a report released by Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.

The conclusion was made based on a survey conducted with 6,000 families in the city.

About 51.6 percent of the surveyed residents said they were confident in job seeking, with 8.3 percentage points higher than last year, while those who said they had no confidence accounted for 17.1 percent, 1.1 percentage points lower than last year.

Bureau experts said the results reflected the steady and fast economic development in Shanghai.

Those born in the 1990s showed the strongest confidence in the survey with the index soaring to 152.4 in this age group, followed by the group born in the 1980s.

Graduating students had relatively low confidence. The index for this group was 126.6, nearly 10 points lower than the average index.

Experts pointed out that graduating students lacked job seeking experience and were easily affected by anxious emotions in the society. They suggested students to take more internships or training to accumulate work experience and competitiveness in the job market.

The average expected pay was 5,277 yuan (US$775) per month, up 3.4 percent from last year.

The long distance between home and workplace replaced low pay as the most commonly chosen reason for job shift. It was chosen by 21.3 percent of the interviewed people, 3.7 percentage points higher than last year.

Personal connection was still an important way for job seeking among local residents. About 25.8 percent of the surveyed citizens said their acquaintances had recommended them to some jobs, 3.2 percentage points decreased from last year.

Recruiting websites became increasingly popular as 25.8 percent of the interviewees said they had looked for jobs on such websites, with a 4.4 percent growth.