Nationwide: Big shortage of translation talents, severe lack of teaching staff
Number of positions posted on the website this week: 2,066,354
Recently, at an international academic seminar on the development of translation education, China Translators Association stated that currently there is a big shortage in China's translation talent pool and a severe lack of teaching staff.
Since there is no authoritative industry statistics, it is hard to estimate how many people are actually working in China's language services industry and how large the demand is. However, according to a survey conducted earlier by the Translators Association, among the companies surveyed, 67.7% plan to hire more than five employees with translation capabilities within the next year. The same percentage of companies believe that currently the most lacking aspect in the language services industry is the training of talents. This confirms from one side that the demand for translation talents is very strong and there is a big gap between the demand and supply of talents, especially high-quality Chinese-to-foreign-language translators.
China Translators Association also mentioned that in China there are only a very few teaching staff who have received formal translator training. There is still a big gap between the scope and quantity of translation teaching staff training and the needs of translation subject construction.
51job Cool Comment: Since foreign language education has become widespread, there are quite a lot of people who have certain foreign language communication skills, but experts are not very common. But subtitling groups do have a lot of such talents.
Finance: Talent prosperity level restrains the construction of an international financial center
Number of positions posted on the website this week: 92,696
Shanghai Financial Association recently released the Shanghai financial prosperity index for the first time, showing that during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai's overall financial development momentum was very strong. From 2006 to 2010, the average annual compound growth rate was 22%, which is 1.4 times the national average GDP growth rate and 1.8 times the average GDP growth rate of Shanghai. However, judging from the prosperity index of 2010, although the overall growth of the financial industry was stable, there was a downward trend compared with previous average growth rates. Moreover, the growth rates of the financial market, financial institutions, and especially financial talents slowed down, implying some concerns about Shanghai's construction of an international financial center.
The financial prosperity index report showed that in 2010, the overall growth of Shanghai's financial talents was weak, increasing only 1.1% compared to 2009. The talent supply increased 3% compared to 2009, while the talent quality growth rate was only 0.6%, lower than the supply. The talent aggregation showed negative growth, and the overall prosperity level was low.
Surveys from universities and financial institutions showed that the soft environment for talents in Shanghai was improving, but the cost of urban living, especially medical care and education, needed improvement. Shanghai's living cost ranked 98th globally, but its quality of life did not rank high among global cities.
51job Cool Comment: How to improve the prosperity level of financial talents? The soft environment for talents cannot be ignored.
Chengdu: Foxconn explosion may affect iPad2 production
Number of positions posted on the website this week: 74,364
Recently, an explosion occurred in the polishing workshop of Chengdu Hong Fu Jin, a subsidiary of Foxconn Group, resulting in three deaths and sixteen injuries, two of them seriously injured. The preliminary cause of the accident was identified as an unexpected explosion caused by combustible dust in the polishing workshop's dust collection duct.
This factory started production last October and will mainly produce Apple iPad tablet computers. According to Sichuan Daily, last year in Chengdu, Guo Tai-ming announced that in 2011, the output of iPads at Foxconn Chengdu base would increase from 20 million units to 40 million units, and the annual output in 2013 would reach 100 million units.
Industry experts generally believed that as one of the main production bases for Apple's latest product iPad2, this accident will affect the production of iPad2 tablet computers. Foxconn is Apple's largest contract manufacturer, and the explosion in the iPad2 production workshop at Foxconn will probably make Apple's supply situation even worse, possibly continuing to drive up the resale market price of iPad2.
51job Cool Comment: What does the explosion in a newly built factory mean? While the company is increasing production capacity to make money, are employee safety issues being ignored?
Shenyang: Undergraduate and graduate students competing for community positions
Number of positions posted on the website this week: 61,146
Recently, Shenyang City held its first unified public recruitment exam for community workers. Among the applicants, besides those with college and undergraduate degrees, 249 graduate students also joined the competition for these positions. Since the start of this recruitment process, a total of 8,223 people registered city-wide, competing for 511 community worker positions, with a final admission rate of 16:1.
Candidates taking the written exam will be determined based on the number of recruits in each district at a ratio of 1:3 to enter the next round of computer exams. After the computer exam, candidates will be selected at a ratio of 1:2 based on the number of recruits in each district to enter the interview stage. Interviews will begin in early June and will be conducted using a structured interview method. Questions will revolve around the requirements of the community position, mainly assessing elements including comprehensive analytical ability, planning and organizational ability, interpersonal communication ability, adaptability, verbal expression ability, and demeanor. After the interviews, the Civil Affairs Bureaus of each district and county will conduct a full investigation of candidates who passed the written exam, computer exam, and interview in order of their scores, and organize physical examinations. If there are insufficient qualified candidates after the investigation and physical examination, they will be supplemented according to the comprehensive score rankings. In late June, the list of proposed hires will be announced, and at the same time, the street office (town government) will display the list in each community to accept social supervision. After the display period is over, the hired personnel will sign a probationary agreement with the hiring district or county, for a duration of three months. After the probationary period, they can officially start work, with benefits following the relevant regulations of the "Shenyang Community Worker Management Measures (Trial Version)."
51job Cool Comment: Strictly controlling the recruitment process is important, but if the written exams and interviews are just formalities, are the recruiting agencies just hyping things up by using undergraduates and graduate students?
Nanchang: Talent activity week has started
Number of positions posted online this week: 6,805
In order to further create a good social atmosphere in Nanchang that respects labor, knowledge, talents, and creativity, Nanchang City has launched a talent activity week across the city.
During the activity week, Nanchang City will hold various forms of activities to help enterprises recruit and talents find employment, building a bridge. It is understood that to alleviate the problem of labor shortages in enterprises, the Nanchang Human Resources and Social Security Bureau will also organize enterprises to go out and recruit talents, attending large-scale talent fairs in Lanzhou and Chengdu. At the same time, to help talents find employment, Nanchang City will also host large-scale on-site and online talent fairs and high-level talent fairs.
51job Cool Comment: Providing a platform for job seekers and employment has always been a practical thing that the government should regularly do.