Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Round Table.
The winds of change are blowing through the job market and China's spray recruitment is leading the charge.
Whether you're stepping into your first job or considering a career pivot now could be the right time to reshape your future and sneezing nonstop this spring it's not just the flowers it's those pesky tree pollens.
With a perfect storm of allergens in the air, let's uncover why these tree pollens are making allergy season worse than ever.
Coming to you live from Beijing, this is Roundtable.
I'm Hei Yong. For today's program, I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Yu Shan in the studio.
First on today's show, spring is in the air, and so is the job hunt.
In China, the 2025 spring recruitment season is creating a buzz across industries from AI and biotech to green energy manufacturing and digital innovation.
This is the country's annual big career moment.
But what's even more fascinating is how rapidly industries such as healthcare, fintech and sustainability are growing, offering new opportunities for college graduates and professionals alike.
So, give us the lay of the land of the spring recruitment season in full swing right now.
Yeah, Heian. Just like you said, there are multiple regions in China recently that are actively engaged in spring recruitment efforts for the year 2025.
And that is characterized by a high demand for talents, especially in emerging and future industries like AI, robotics and new energy vehicles.
So let's have a quick look at how various Chinese cities and regions are actually carrying out or spanning out their own spring hiring season lately.
Let's start with Guangzhou, because to me personally, according to my research, I think Guangzhou is really taking the lead this year.
And in mid -March, the city of Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province is hosting what they call the ultimate spring job fair at the Canton Fair Complex. We know that the Canton Fair is held every year and the complex is a very big piece of land Which can be presumed from this detail that this year.
They're actually expanding Well expanding the scale for their spring hiring season because compared to previous years this year spring recruitment has expanded nearly threefold they're in Guangzhou with over 51 and 51 ,200 job positions offered on site.
Over 50 ,000 jobs offered in one complex, one building.
That's really cool.
You can imagine how crowded it is on site.
So among all the job openings, electronics represented advanced manufacturing.
Also the healthcare industry, they ranked in the top three.
and the fair attracted about 120 ,000 job seekers from over 1 ,000 domestic and also international universities.
They were, pardon me, represented as well.
That's a huge, huge, huge job fair.
That's a very exciting time, isn't it, for job seekers.
It's an exciting time for companies, too, to try to find their future talent.
And also, I guess, a stressful time of year, too, this season.
Yeah, I mean, well earlier this year Guangdong actually proposed the what they call the Million Talents Gathering in Nan Yue Action Plan.
So Nan Yue is another name for Guangdong.
And that is also pushing to attract maybe one million college graduates to Guangdong to work there for just employment or maybe in entrepreneurship.
So this job fair is basically one of the key activities under this plan.
Like you said, Steve, I think that it really attracted a lot of talents to Guangdong.
And not just Guangdong alone, there are also job fairs held in other places, cities, provinces such as in Nanjing, in east China's Jiangsu Province.
So there's one university that I noticed called the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and astronautics that's hosting a large -scale spring job fair with 520 companies from 27 provinces and cities that's offering 15 ,000 job positions in that one university job fair.
And it's really interesting because we just touched upon this idea of the little giants companies like the small and medium sized companies that's boasting cutting -edge technologies and also specialized in niche sectors that's showing very strong growth momentum for the future.
They are actually participating a lot in this year's spring hiring job fairs, such as the one I just mentioned in Nanjing.
So among the participating companies over half were actually private -owned or what they called the specialized, refined, unique, and innovative enterprises, enterprises.
That's the – they're covering different sectors, including low -altitude economy sectors, the new energy sectors, and of course AI.
And it's also reported that this school in particular, this university, they actually visited over 300 companies in the past six months.
So half a year ahead of the job fair, they actually got into the enterprises to try to conduct research and just to find out the exact needs and you know just how many talents which major requires.
So the universities visit the companies to get an idea of the type of talent that they're looking for and the requirements that the students might have that's a really great idea.
Yeah and this particular university is one that you know turns out students with very specific tech skills.
It's not an arts college for example, then the focus will be very different.
Yeah, the name is the University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
There's going to be some great talent coming out of there.
Oh, definitely and also, what I find to be really interesting from this particular university job fair is that it's kind of rare anywhere around the world actually to see the university to be so involved with not just the education.
Usually, when you think of universities as like after the student gets the diploma, boom none of our business any more.
But with this type of university, this one is a really good example, is actually really helping out students trying to help them with employment and this is an interesting area that universities when they do get involved, I think it's really good news for students for graduates too.
And that can help with recruitment too.
Oh, yes. Right? Because if students, well, for the companies, but also from the students' point of view too, if they're choosing a potential university and they know that this university is really going to lend a helping hand when my studies are finished as opposed to a university that doesn't do that, that could make a big difference in getting students into your schools.
Education, you mentioned education.
My family might be interested in this recruitment fair because there are so many teachers in my family.
This is in Yunnan Province.
There was a recruitment fair that was held there for teacher recruitment across the country, over 530 employers from 12 different provinces and regions in China, offering more than 10 ,000 teaching positions to graduates from normal universities.
Those would be teacher education universities.
The area, Yunnan, they plan to hold 17 more education -specific job fairs in March and April.
that was from the Provincial Department of Education.
That's a lot of job fairs, a lot of job openings, and good luck to all those potential teachers out there.
Oh definitely. And for Chinese people we are all familiar with the term chuanjiao and chiujiao.
So that's the spring recruitment and the autumn recruitment, but for those who do not live in China you might be unfamiliar with what this is about.
So could you also provide a little bit of information on sort of the background, the backdrop of this whole recruitment season.
Of course. So the reason why we're really talking about this spring recruitment season is that, first of all, this is a peak hiring season here in China every year between March and April.
Because this is the time when companies typically finalize their plans for the new fiscal year and also start to think about hiring new employees to achieve their annual goals.
and spring recruitment usually takes place after the Chinese New Year.
And around this time, many fresh graduates have also completed their studies and are highly motivated to find jobs out there in the market.
So this gives the companies a good chance to really quickly bring in new talents just from general public out there because they're all over the place, sort of.
But also, you mentioned two charges now, Huyang, because spring recruitment, we talk about it as trinjal, is actually a matching event for jiujal, which is perhaps the larger annual recruitment season in China.
Because it's widely considered by many people as larger and in scale and also offering more diverse positions for fresh graduates in autumn.
That's around the time they graduate anyway.
And also, sometimes the participants are those college students that are not yet graduating.
They're graduating in the coming year but companies are already entering into the university to maybe to have them get to know the policies and what kind of positions they may get.
Some may even sign those to be graduated students ahead so that's the - Oh like an early signing.
Yeah. Oh that's cool.
That's the magic of Suu Jiau, the Fall Season recruitment.
But the spring recruitment sessions on the other hand also provide new opportunities parties for non -college graduates, so people who have already got a job but simply want a fresh start at the beginning of the year, that's between March and April.
Like we mentioned earlier, that's usually the time when the market is back to the normal routine after the Chinese New Year's holiday, and people start to get their annual bonuses and are now maybe just thinking about finding a better job or improving their positions.
Yeah, it doesn't just have to be for graduates, right?
You know, that's a really cool idea, it's great for the students too, you know, maybe a semester before they graduate to be able to go out to some of these fairs and just kind of dip their toes in the pool, so to speak and get an idea of what's out there and who knows, maybe find something.
But yeah, you mentioned the graduating class is highly motivated to find jobs.
Oh, are they ever? Yeah, you finish university and then that pressure and the stress comes but also the excitement to you because you're you're finished with one major part of your life and you're entering into another interesting though that there's I didn't know this about China that there's two major hiring seasons it's a little bit different I think in the West depending on the industry they might have different hiring seasons so for example if it's finance and insurance they say that there is a spring surge for for hiring in that growth may particularly emerges is a high point for job growth
in that industry. December, they say, stands out for those in accounting and tax and payroll services.
This peak probably aligns with the end -of -year financial closing and tax preparation and that type of thing, so they be hiring there.
But also they say that January and February are big hiring months in the West. It's a prime time for job seekers because companies often have fresh budgets, and sales forecasts, and they'll be looking for employees then.
And then, of course, you've got your seasonal employment, too.
The summertime, if you're looking for part -time work, maybe at a hotel or something travel related, there's opportunities in that season, too.
So it's actually quite all year around.
Yeah, depending, right?
Yeah, so in Canada, that's why I was surprised to hear, oh, interesting, April and then maybe in the fall, the two big hiring periods.
I don't think in Canada, we have major hiring periods like that.
And it's just kind of, you know, keep your eyes open all the time.
Very interesting. And actually it's probably quite useful if you know these cycles and sort of ride the tide.
Because if you're not, when you're quitting the job and it doesn't coincide with the, let's say when the job listings are open, then maybe not a great thing to happen.
But, yeah, advantages and disadvantages to both I guess.
Yeah, you could align your schedule if you if you did it properly and got lucky But then I guess if you missed out on a chance then you know you have to wait for an extra few months for the next hiring cycle and I remember my days as a What you call the third year student who's not like a senior yet, and then usually for the last year of University a lot of people are already like try trying to book interviews and basically trying to land a job in a year's time.
And I remember it was really, really stressful.
And there were job fairs in my university in London as well.
And it was a stressful time.
But anyhow guys, so which industries when you look at this spring recruitment season in China, which industries or jobs are in high demand for talent?
Well definitely the emerging and future industries, at least for this year, because there is a significant demand for talent in just growing or futuristic sectors such as AI, robotics, high -end equipment manufacturing, new energy vehicles, of course, low -altitude economy related industries, and also semiconductors and integrated circuits, and the digital economy included as well.
So the rapid development and application of technologies like unmanned aerial vehicles and 6G are also creating substantial demand for related engineering positions.
because currently as the we talked about the drone or low altitude economy in previous shows as well because the drone industry is has been continuously growing in recent tiers as well.
And this year recruitment platforms show that since the start of the 2025 spring recruitment season the demand for drone engineers and drone assembly and testing positions has increased by nearly 40 % and 65 % year on year respectively.
Yeah, so I had to look that up by the way.
What's a drone engineer?
Do you know? I had to look it up.
A drone engineer helps design, develop, test, and maintain these drones.
And the field requires a blend of expertise from various engineering disciplines, including get this aerospace engineering, engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, and software engineering, developing and programming the drones, flight control systems, navigation systems and software applications, and robotics too.
That's why those drones are sold in such a high price.
Yeah. I would assume.
I guess so. And, it's also interesting to see that the drone industry actually has seen its price Slash by a lot as well.
And this is a lot of this is you know, what a lot of Tech sectors do experience.
Oh speaking of tech sex. Sorry.
No, it's okay. Yeah speaking of tech sectors I think another kind of niche Rather industry, that's attracting people's eyes.
These days is regarding the telecommunication communication network.
China's gone through the 4G era, the 5G era, and nowadays it seems like the 6G era is coming because this year 6G technology made its first appearance in the government work report and of course the development plans for 6G development are gradually being rolled out as well across various regions and providing just this vast employment opportunities of telecommunication related network engineers.
We're talking about engineers a lot in today's show.
And data shows that since the spring recruitment season began, the demand for telecommunications network engineers has surged by, hear this out, 279 % while recruitment for core network engineers and base station engineers has increased by more than 65 % and 42 % respectively.
Any engineering students listening to the show today are feeling pretty good.
Yeah, indeed. What were you gonna say about the tech industry before?
Well, I mean, one thing that you guys mentioned was if we may circle back to the drones again, let's just take that as an example, is at these job fairs, it sounds like a lot of the high end stuff regarding the industry is looking for candidates and sometimes they're even struggling to find the right talents.
And throughout the years as on this show, we talked about still, talking about the drones, what I find to be really interesting is not only does it create jobs for high -end engineers, but also one thing that was being touted by the, of these new energies technologies such as the drone industry is that it can also create jobs for a lot of the traditionally called blue collar workers or whatnot.
It doesn't always require you to have a college degree to be employed or to somehow participate in that part of the economy.
Also, coming from an outsider of the industry, so I can only observe from the outside, it it's really interesting that you've got you know these high -end jobs tech jobs for engineers as well as you know the jobs that maybe just requires you to do like a short term like a three months course online and and you can become a drone driver but I just don't know how long this drone pilot job can continue before you need to retrain, upskill, and reinvent yourself again.
And that is pretty much the norm for every worker in this economy, when every day we feel we're being pushed by AI and some other new tech. Yeah, I mean, you make a couple of interesting points there, I think.
Number one, the lack of talent, right, which is why, you know, this growing industry, this that I think people weren't prepared for and jobs are being created that we didn't know we even needed before, but that's why it's important for universities to have programs that students can attend and study and become proficient in these programs. Now, that's a great thing, but then this might create some sort of an issue in the future where the bar is being raised so high, right?
Where it's only, and I think that was the second point you were making, right?
It's only if you've graduated from those really high -tech schools with these amazing degrees that you can be qualified to work for these types of companies or these types of industries.
Yeah, it's not an easy solution, but it's what's happening now.
Yeah, and another point you raised just now, Heoyang, kind of rings a bell for me because nowadays a lot of vocational schools, they're also integrating AI, say technology or tools into their day -to -day education structure as well.
I interviewed someone who worked in that line of work just earlier last month and, according to him, apparently all of the students there, well, they are trained to become technicians in the future and probably they will become those who will assemble the say the drones or whatever high -tech products that's designed by those and future engineers that's going to attend these jobs.
and they starting in vocational school they are embracing a wider range of different skills that's high -tech related in order to understand it better and become higher say more productive more efficient talents all the way from vocational school so that's a very different but also coming to the same stream that's enhanced personnel from the what we They call the new productive forces that's trained ever since they're back in school.
That's pretty cool.
That's the quality productive forces?
The shingers, sheng chai li.
Right. There are these big terms in Chinese and sometimes, you know, when you translate them into English directly, it's very confusing but ...
You get lost in the words.
Yes. Just quickly, I think to your point about having to retrain and retrain and retrain and keep up with what's going on in the industries, there have been certain jobs where that's been required for a long time.
Pilots, for example, are always constantly being trained on new things.
But that's advice that I would give to anyone entering the job market in whatever industry you're hoping to work in is continue to better yourself, continue to train.
Don't just get into the industry and then rest on your laurels.
You can continue to improve yourself to help keep up with whatever changes might come in the future because they're coming we just don't know what they are yet.
Yeah, that's a great point Steve because let's face it even the brightest minds in this world even Elon Musk He doesn't know like what happens what the job market is gonna look like in 30 years time or even 20 years time.
So the only thing we can do right now as an average person looking for jobs or just trying to make a living these days is accept that uncertainty is the only constant.
And we got to evolve, hopefully one step ahead of time.
If not, just evolve with the times.
Yeah. And now, even on Roundtable, we get so many questions from our audience asking talking about, oh, what about this industry in the future?
What about English translation?
Will there be a field for this?
What can we do? The truth is, we don't know yet.
So the best thing you can do is just kind of follow your passions, but also keep up with the times and continue to improve yourself by continuing your studies.
It's good you brought up that example of somebody who might still be thinking about studying English or some language subjects, or maybe translation, which very much sounds kind of like an antiquity nowadays.
But guys, for anybody who's listening to this show, if I'm not studying the STEM subjects, the tech related subjects, I'm scratching my head now.
Roundtable. Do I have any hope here?
You know? Like, just look at this, as the spring job fares, boom.
What about about so many other students who are not graduating with tech degrees?
Well, this has been an issue for decades in many different countries around the world.
Even I when I graduated from university, I'm an English major, right?
I was an economics major.
Then I switched my major to English and I did that with the same uncertainty, right?
With that same fear of, uh, do people hire English majors for anything anymore?
but hey look where my degree led me and here I am today.
So, you know, do things with some confidence.
Don't be fearful all the time, I guess.
And here's something very interesting that I found during my research, very recently that is, choose the industry, not the company.
Because what this is from Joe Gualam who suggests that university students should consider their overall qualifications and interests when doing job hauntings, especially during this time of the year where there's so many, there seems to be so many job fairs and so many opportunities right there.
But this is the time when you should really remain rational and paying close attention to macro policies and the economic situations and understanding industry trends to accurately seize job opportunities, instead of being blinded by this seemingly The AI boom or tech boom, dumb related industry boom that seems so nice, so well paid and just got deviated away from your true passion.
And this guy, Joe Guo Liang, he is the Director of Employment Promotion Center of Shanghai and he made one point that choosing the right industry is often more important than choosing the right company and improving workers, rather these days is the graduate skills, is not an overnight process.
You need to constantly get yourself ready and plan ahead which requires continuous learning and accumulation about this general industry as well.
Yeah, and he also said that not all the job fairs held this spring are AI centric.
He brought up this point, and this will make you feel better maybe if you're listening to the show today.
AI related positions accounted for less than 10 % of the total job openings.
Well for one job fair in Shanghai, I think, That's what he was saying.
But there's lots of different industries hiring for lots of different positions.
So don't fret too much. And to all job seekers out there, may you find the opportunity that excites you, the courage to pursue it, and the strength to keep moving forward. Wishing you all the best of luck.
