After three straight years of increase in the CIER employment index on the Mainland, which measures the confidence level of  job seekers on the labour market, the index came down in the third quarter of 2015 as the nation’s economy slows down.

The index was published last Friday by mainland recruitment site Zhaopin Limited and China Institute for Employment Research (CIER) at Renmin University.

A CIER index score of more than 1 indicated that confidence is high for job seekers seeking employment. A CIER index score of less than 1 indicated that confidence for job seekers seeking employment is low.

The CIER index had increased steadily from 2011 to 2014, but employment market in China has been negatively impacted as nation’s employment market slowed down led by slumping performance in manufacturing during the second quarter of 2015.

This in turn caused CIER index scores to trend downwards, decreasing during the past two quarters from its high of 2.46 during the first quarter of 2015.

The index further decreased during the third quarter of 2015 to 1.96 from 2.03 during the second quarter of 2015.

Despite the down fall, confidence in finance and emerging service sectors such as e-commerce however, continues to boom.

During the third quarter of 2015, e-commerce registered a CIER index score of 5.63, which was first among all sectors, followed by the funds/securities/futures/investment sector with a score of 5.33.

The CIER index for the ten best performing sectors were all above 2.5, demonstrating strong confidence in finding employment in these sectors.

As China’s financial markets develop, recruitment demand from the financial sector in third and fourth-tier cities grew more rapidly than in first and second-tier cities during the third quarter of 2015.

Recruitment demand from the e-commerce sector in third and fourth-tier cities increased by more than 100% from the third quarter of 2014, while demand in the first and second-tier cities increased by over 50%  during the same period.

The ten worst performing sectors were all related to traditional manufacturing and services, all of them recorded CIER index lower than 1.0.  Accountants are hit the hardest with a CIER index score of 0.44.

Large firms in real estate remains pessimistic as they see their financial and operational performances suffer.

Recruitment demand from the real estate sector continued to fall, decreasing 15% compared to during the third quarter of 2014.

Job seekers in related sectors also continues to have low confidence, rental service has a CIER index of 0.64 and 0.79 for property management.

Ten best performing sectors with the highest CIER employment index of the third quarter of 2015

1. E-commerce: 5.63

2. Funds/securities/futures/investment: 5.33

3. Insurance: 4.51

4. Education/training/college: 3.32

5. Real estate/construction/building materials/engineering: 3.22

6. Agency: 2.93

7. Logistics/warehousing: 2.79

8. Professional service/consulting (accounting/law/human resource):  2.74

9. Traffic/transportation: 2.71

10. Farming/forestry/animal husbandry/fishery: 2.50

Ten worst performing sectors with the lowest CIER employment index of the third quarter of 2015

1. Accounting/auditing: 0.44

2.Energy/mineral/mining/smelting: 0.58

3. Aerospace research and manufacturing 0.62

4. Rental service: 0.64

5. Electricity/power/water conservancy: 0.69

6. Office supplies and equipment: 0.70

7. Inspection/testing/authentication: 0.71

8. Academia/research: 0.72

9. Property management/business center: 0.79

10. Environmental protection: 0.82

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