Employment outlook weakens for H2

Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show the working-age population in the mainland reduced by 3.45 million in 2012 compared with the end of 2011.

There is a risk that if economic growth keeps slowing down, the human resource costs will rise relatively and then the labor-intensive enterprises will be under heavy pressure running their businesses, Du said, adding it will lead to job cuts.

Economic transition is a fundamental solution to making sure new technology-intensive and capital-intensive enterprises will offer job opportunities after labor-intensive businesses are eliminated.

This year's graduate employment is a result of unrealized economic transition, Du said.

College graduates with higher technology skills can meet the demand to improve productivity but there are still not enough jobs for them because labor-intensive enterprises still account for the main part of the economy, he said.

On the other hand, the employment in different industries reveals contrasting situations.

"The real economy reflects obviously whether the economic development is healthy, which means secondary industry is affected most by macroeconomic growth," said Hao Jian, chief consultant at Zhaopin.com.

Manpower's report also shows that hiring intentions will weaken in the finance, insurance and real estate sectors with a 20 percentage point decline year-on-year in the third quarter of 2013. Mining and construction sectors will suffer an 11 percentage point year-on-year fall.

"Much of the (employment) weakness stems from considerable declines in China's finance and construction sectors," Manpower said in its report.

Recruitment in the telecommunication, consulting and information technology sectors will increase slowly this year compared with 2012, Hao said.

Tertiary industry will contribute more to the employment market. Urbanization is good news for job opportunities in tertiary industries.

Job growth in healthcare, retailing and luxury goods sectors will keep going up, Hao said, although these are not main sectors in the employment market traditionally.

Some human resources management companies have moved their businesses to the rising industries.

"Antal has conducted business in the consumer goods and service-related sector since two years ago," said James Darlington, head of Asia at Antal International, a United Kingdom recruitment and training consultancy.

He said it is easier for the consumer-related industries to cover the rising cost of human resources in China.

Employment in the third quarter will remain very strong in the sectors, Darlington said. July could be the firm's best month this year in terms of recruitments number.

The fourth quarter may have some seasonal slowdown but the majority of its clients in consumer-related industries are still very optimistic about the job markets, he added.