ChinaHR.com’s ninth annual survey report on the Best Employers among Chinese University Students, released June 28th, ranks China Mobile as the most desired employer in China, though it also shows a marked trend away from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as the entities within which new graduates desire to build their careers. Private companies and foreign-invested enterprises are becoming more attractive as employers in the post-global downturn era.

According to the survey, the top 5 employers in 2011 are China Mobile, Bank of China, Alibaba.com, Microsoft and ICBC. The 2011 survey is based on the votes of nearly 200,000 students from 764 universities and colleges across China.

While SOEs remain the most desired employers, due to the perception of more favorable benefits and greater job stability provided by government employment, private companies and foreign-funded companies have gained substantial ground in the most recent study. In 2010, only 14.5 percent of students preferred foreign-owned enterprises as their first job choice, a number that has grown to 32 percent today. "With the upturning economy, industries of fast consumable commodities and services are recovering also,” says ChinaHR.com. “Enterprises in these industries have regained favor of university students. Therefore, as foreign-invested enterprises are leading in these industries, they have won back recognition and increased their attractiveness from university students."

Post-IPO internet companies have also become an appealing choice for new workers, such as Sina and Sohu. However, state-owned businesses in the fields of energy, finance and telecom are still the top choices for new grads. Surprisingly, the education and culture industries surpasses the financial industry as a preferred Industry among university students in this year’s study, with 9.6% of students interested in this sector, a marked increase over last year, when this area did not even make the top ten. ChinaHR.com suggests that the "12th Five-Year Plan" dedicated a separate chapter to the education and culture industries, so savvy grads can see that these areas hold a promising future."It can be seen from the survey this year that university students are highly sensitive to state policies. There is a clear trend towards education and culture industries," said Liu Xingyang, one of ChinaHR’s human resources experts.

As far as cities of choice, Beijing and Shanghai remain the top selections for talents, while Guangzhou is losing favor due to competition from hotter cities in Guangdong province, like Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan. The survey showed that 9.1 percent of students wish to work in Beijing after graduation, followed by 5.2 percent who would prefer to be based in Shanghai, with only 3.8 percent selecting Guangzhou as their domicile of choice. 

ChinaHR.com is a leading human resources and job search website in China. In 2008, the company partnered with Monster Worldwide, becoming a formal member of the global recruitment website.