China's employment service websites are reporting that IT talents and private enterprises were the hottest tickets in the job market in the first quarter of this year.

Online applications for jobs soared following the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival holiday, leaping from 4.8 million in January to 8.7 million in March, according to one leading website. The average number of people competing for one job in January was just 14.2; in March, the number swelled to 26.4.

In the first quarter, 22.2 percent of jobs offered were in the IT sector, including those for systems analysts and a variety of engineering positions.

Foreign enterprises are showing particularly robust demand for IT professionals, and those who can speak fluent Japanese or Korean and English have a strong advantage. Multilingual candidates also have an edge in technical support, customer service and telephone sales.

Japanese companies are offering positions in Japan to Chinese software engineers.

A variety of jobs in the Internet industry are emerging strongly this year, including payment platform products planner, e-mail products operator, bidding manager and wireless business media planner.

Meanwhile, national policies that benefit private enterprises have accelerated demand in the private sector. Senior technicians, salespeople, project and operations managers are all highly sought after by corporations.

The top five qualities that jobseekers are looking for now are upward mobility; salary and benefits; training opportunities; sound management philosophy; and a fair awards system. Private enterprises are more likely to offer such advantages as flexible management, high efficiency and room to move up in the world.

(China.org.cn by Wang Sining April 12, 2005)