There are more than 200 employment websites, with Beijing-based Zhaopin.com and China HR.com and Shanghai-based 51job.com covering 70 per cent of the burgeoning market.

Zhaopin.com has recorded 1 million pageviews a day with up to 1,000 new job listings.

The majority of job listings cover Internet, software, computer and marketing positions.

By registering with an online recruitment website, a job-hunter can access a variety of professional services and employment tips.

Zeng Yunqiang, who works for a foreign-funded company in Pudong, used online recruitment websites to free himself from the burdens of traditional job-hunting.

"It was like jumping into a sea. I could update my resume online and instantly contact companies by e-mail," said Zeng, who used the Internet to find his current position last year.

But not everybody is getting positive employment results by using the Internet.

Jin Zhu, a Fudan University student, failed to find a job online.

"All of my room mates registered online to find a job, but we rarely got feedbacks. Even when we did, the companies said we lacked experience," said Jin, a journalism major.

Experts say successful online job seekers should be Internet-savvy with good computer skills.

But the experts warn that more needs to be done to prevent unscrupulous websites from selling the personal information of job hunters to marketing companies.

(China Daily 02/02/01)