Employees in China jump ship more often: report   

报告显示过半中国职场人士不到一年半就要找下家

(ECNS) – A LinkedIn report shows that professionals in China are switching employers more frequently than their American counterparts.

The report released on Oct 20 shows that employees in China stay at their jobs an average of 34 months, nearly two years shorter than employees in the US.

The phenomenon is seen in most industries. IT workers stay on their jobs in the US for an average of 45 months, while in China the number is 31 months. In manufacturing, workers in the US hold their contracts for 71 months on average, while workers in China only stay for 39 months.

Of all the surveyed employees in China's major economic circles, 20 percent say they're actively looking for new jobs. Fifty-three percent say they don't mind learning about possible opportunities. Only 12 percent say they're not interested in hopping to another job.

According to the report, companies' relentless appetite for talent and the lack of a sound career development system are major causes for quick staff turnovers.

China's booming sectors such as internet, service and finance have been hungry for talent. But because of the absence of a career advancement system, most of them have to look outside of the company to find the right people.

On the employees' side, when they meet a career bottleneck, they tend to pin their hopes on job hopping to advance their careers. According to LinkedIn, about 30 percent of professionals have had such experiences.

Information asymmetry is another cause. When employees find that job requirements differ from what they expected, they often quit.

The report signals a strong need for firms to improve their talent training and incentive mechanisms, as Chinese employees are most concerned about the potential to grow professionally.