Report says jobs picture will brighten slowly

The labor market in the second quarter shrank slightly, as the wider economy continued to stabilize and recover, according to a report released on Thursday. But it predicted jobs would rebound slowly through December.

The report, jointly released by online recruiter Zhaopin and the China Institute for Employment Research, uses an index developed by the institute to monitor the trend of the labor market. The smaller the CIER Index is, the more competitors there are for job vacancies and the more intensive the labor market is.

Reaching 2.46 in the first quarter - its highest point since 2011 - the index saw a slight decrease to 2.03 in the second quarter. The report attributed the decrease to the macroeconomy.