Affected by the global financial crisis, hiring expectations have weakened in seven cities and five industrial sectors in the mainland for the first quarter of 2009.

In addition, employers in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou reported their weakest hiring intentions since the first quarter of 2007, a report conducted by Manpower showed.

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is conducted quarterly to measure employers' intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforce during the quarter.

The new report shows that the Net Employment Outlook (NEO) for China stands at positive 10 percent in the first quarter of 2009, a decline of 2 percentage points quarter-over-quarter and 5 percentage points year-over-year.

The NEO figure is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating total employment to increase, and subtracting the percentage expecting to see a decrease in employment.

For China, the survey for the first quarter was conducted by interviewing a representative sample of 3,727 employers from the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dalian, Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Qingdao and Xi'an.

Survey participants were asked: "How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of March as compared to the previous quarter?"

Managing Director of Manpower Greater China Lucille Wu attributed the less optimistic hiring activity to the impact of the global financial crisis.

(China Daily January 9, 2009)