The number of job vacancies and job seekers in Shanghai's second quarter have risen about 20 percent compared to the first quarter this year, according to a job market report issued yesterday.

The report, released by the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau, said 20,000 enterprises registered with the Shanghai Job Placement Center's Website (jobs.12333sh.gov.cn) and other job Websites, offering a total of 390,000 vacancies, a 20.7-percent rise from the first quarter.

A record of 419,000 people applied for jobs at public job placement centers across the city, rising by 23.2 percent from the first quarter, with most job seekers being 25 to 34 years old.

The report said the average age of the job seekers was 32, and 80 percent were under 35, while only 10 percent of the total were older than 45. The number of applicants over 45 decreased by 8.3 percent from the first quarter and 22.5 percent from the same period last year.

The city's key sectors, such as medicine manufacturing, chemical and logistic industries, attracted the most job seekers, with the employment demand-to-supply ratio at about 0.3.

According to the report, a total of 1,009 people applied for 273 medicine manufacturing jobs, putting the demand-to-supply ratio at 0.27, the lowest in the top 10 industries.

The center's career information analyst said the strong competition was due to job seekers following growing industries.

But some occupations are suffering a shortage of qualified staff.

Only 35,402 applications were received for 48,467 sales positions posted during the second quarter.

Jobs in securities investment companies also faced a shortage of staff with the bullish stock market generating a huge demand.

Only 1,189 of the 6,578 jobs in securities firms were filled, giving a demand-to-supply ratio of 5.53.

(Shanghai Daily August 7, 2007)