Competition for jobs has intensified in the first quarter of 2020. According to a new report, the national talent competition index stands at 46.3, which means that about 46 people are competing for every available job position.

According to the recently released report by leading job recruitment platform Zhilian Zhaopin, the talent competition index grew by 11.8 points month on month but declined by 1 point year on year.

State-owned enterprises recorded the highest job competition index (76.0), followed by listed companies (56.1) and joint ventures (44.6), according to the report.

The report also shows that, except for small and micro-sized companies with fewer than 100 employees, the job competition index for other enterprises all saw a decline compared to the same period last year. As major groups that were hit the hardest by the COVID-19 outbreak, small businesses and privately owned companies suffered a difficult time. This has led to a large decrease in their hiring demand, according to the report.

In the first quarter of 2020, competition for jobs related to real estate, construction, building materials, and engineering became the most fierce, with 75.6 applications per vacancy on Zhaopin.com. This group of positions also tops the list with the most job vacancies, followed by the internet and e-commerce sector.

Meanwhile, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, education, training, colleges and universities, hotels and restaurants, and entertainment, sports, and leisure sectors all saw sharp drops in the number of job vacancies and applications from January to March compared with the same period last year.

The survey also shows that the average monthly wages in 38 major cities reached 8,821 yuan (US$1,254), which is up 9.6% from the same period last year.

Beijing offers the highest salary for white-collar workers with an average of 11,982 yuan per month, followed by Shanghai and Shenzhen, with average monthly wages at 11,303 yuan and 10,616 yuan, respectively, according to the report. In addition, Beijing also ranks first among the 38 major cities studied by Zhaopin.com with its job seeking index at 120.2 points.

However, compared to the last quarter of 2019, China's white-collar workers earned less in the first quarter of 2020 amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Especially for people working in the online video game industry, their average monthly wages saw the largest decline, dropping by 8.7% to 10,940 yuan. According to Zhilian's report, many offline video game competition and events were cancelled due to the outbreak, pushing companies to lower their salaries to cope with the loss of revenues.

Few companies are willing to hire new employees during the outbreak when they are unable to hit their projected earnings. To cope with the increased competition, the report suggests job seekers take part in vocational training programs to further improve their skills and meet market demand. The report also says it is a good opportunity for employers to hire people to build the talent pools with lower human cost.

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