Recruitment in the spring of 2024:40% of employers' social recruitment is the same as the same period in 2023, and only 29% of employers maintain the number of school recruitment in the same period last year

China's authoritative human resources service provider 51Job today released the "2024 Spring Recruitment Market." The report says the job market is lagging and cautious relative to the improvement in national economic data. Machinery and equipment and energy and chemical manufacturing, FMCG retail industry employment demand is more active. In the first half of 2024, most employers still focus on "cost control" and "talent retention and motivation" as the main goals, and AI technology is already showing signs of changing jobs. The source of jobs (quantity and quality) is different, and the path to talent is not satisfied by inertia and convention.

The "Spring 2024 Recruitment Market" is a quarterly analysis of the recruitment market of 51Job.com, based on the distribution of vacant positions and employers on 51Job.com and fresh graduates' job-hunting website. At the same time, questionnaires and interviews are conducted among the top 30 employers in 20 major industries by two dimensions of industry and enterprise type. Most of the employers are from "China Model Employers" and "Employer brands favored by Chinese college students". As of April 15, 632 employers had fully reported their recruitment data.

Demand power is still insufficient, school recruitment and social recruitment different trends

Despite the positive economic data, the recovery of the job market will be delayed by three to six months. In the short term, employers will remain cautious about hiring.

Four out of 10 employers surveyed reported the same level of social recruitment as in spring 2023, while 29% reported the same level of graduate recruitment as last spring. There is a two-sided trend in campus recruitment: more employers are increasing graduate recruitment than social recruitment, but the number of large employers who do not recruit is also higher than the number of employers who do not recruit. Among the surveyed companies, the employers with the largest increase in social recruitment are state-owned enterprises, and the increase in recruitment by multinational companies is mainly due to the demand for graduates.

"Replacement" is the main driver of social recruitment by employers in the spring of 2024, hoping to reduce costs and change ability through recruitment, but the effect is not good. The vast majority of enterprises have restarted recruitment after personnel optimization and organizational structure adjustment, but the recruitment volume is close to or less than the same period last year. In addition, the phenomenon of non-renewal of labor contracts has increased.

Most enterprises put "cost first" as the focus

At present, "core talent retention and motivation" and "cost control" are the most important HR strategies of enterprises, which explains why more employers are reducing recruitment than increasing it.

On the one hand, the widespread commercial application of artificial intelligence technology will bring about significant changes in the creation and reduction of job opportunities, the content and manner of work, and the skills required for work. Bloated large enterprises in a new round of technological revolution is approaching, generally adopt a "slimming" attitude to light.

On the other hand, growth and earnings are much harder than they used to be. Growth in revenue and profits is no longer a certainty for companies or their employees.

So far in 2023, industries such as technology, finance and professional services have been cutting costs and consolidating their workforces, with both social and school recruitment hiring significantly lower than the previous year. Feng Lijuan, chief human resources expert at 51Job, said that given the widespread use of digitalization in these industries, the decrease in recruitment partly reflects the replacement of some jobs by digital intelligence technologies.

It's getting harder and harder to get a raise

Although the economic data are improving, the trend is not yet stable. While many of the employers surveyed believe the outlook for 2024 is better than last year, nearly half (48%) remain optimistic due to "a lot of uncertainty." This aggravates the enterprise's sensitivity to "human cost" over the accumulation of "human capital" in talent management.

At the same time, uncertainty about the direction of technological disruption and fluctuations in business survival have led employers to greatly increase flexibility and short-term effects in talent acquisition and use.

On 51job, 60% of the posts require a bachelor's degree or above, and only 20% have clear professional requirements, which is significantly lower than the peak of "37% of the positions have professional requirements." Rapid change requires agile response, employers are paying more and more attention to the "quick realization" of skills, employers prefer candidates who can directly start work and good management, and the obsession with education and school is gradually replaced by pragmatism.

The majority of employers, 70%, maintained their 2023 pay levels. Significantly more employers increased graduate salaries than those that increased social recruitment pay, and more social recruitment companies with salaries lower than 2023 than those that carried out school recruitment.

Where are the jobs?

Generative AI is already starting to have a huge impact on a wide variety of jobs across the industry in 2024. So far, however, this huge impact has not created a large number of jobs, and the increase in jobs has not necessarily led to a significant increase in wages. On the contrary, the disruptive power of new technologies is causing burnout and pressure to adapt.

Feng Lijuan said that the first-line operation and junior management positions account for the majority, and the strategy of enterprises to penetrate from the first and second-line developed cities to the third and fourth lines is also the source of new job opportunities. In addition, in the long term, aging and health, smart technology applications and sustainable development goals are likely to provide more job opportunities.