Job hoppers consider making the big jump

"I feel like I was facing job burnout earlier this year, and I'm considering changing jobs," said 29-year-old Chen Yanyi, who has worked as an insurance consultant in Beijing for five years. "I have huge performance pressure every month and feel depressed about the 'office politics'."

Chen said she was zealous in her career at the very beginning.

"I had a very big dream at the time to bring something beneficial to my customers or people around me through my job. But the increasingly harsh performance evaluation has weighed me down from this year. My bossy team leader usually demoralizes me by saying words demeaningly.

"The idea of changing a job came to me around late July after I had a quarrel with my team leader. But I still haven't made the final decision because of my current salary — which is well-paid regardless of my personal feelings, and my age. Turning 30 may be a career bottleneck for a married working woman," she added. "But I will keep looking for a suitable opportunity to get myself an 'easier' job psychologically."

Employment experts and industry insiders said that the job market may see an upsurge of job hopping this autumn — a traditionally high season for recruitment.

An old Chinese saying goes "gold September and silver October", meaning the two months are the best time for both job-seekers and job-hoppers.

However, job preferences of job-hoppers vary based on age and gender, though they share a common wish for higher pay, according to a recent report by recruitment portal Zhaopin. The report is based on a multiple-choice questionnaire Zhaopin collected from its users who are all employed. It didn't clarify the number of people surveyed.

According to the report, nearly 79 percent of people focus on pay and welfare when making a job-hopping decision, while work-life balance, career promotion and a company's future vision are also important elements.

Specifically, 39 percent of those surveyed wish their pay to increase 20 to 50 percent for their next job, while 25.3 percent said they can accept the same pay and 5.2 percent would take a pay cut.

Industries closely related with high technology and manufacturing, including information technology, electronics and automobiles are favored by job-hoppers, especially males. The report said that around 22 percent of surveyed male workers wish to get a new job in the automobile manufacturing industry, while only 13.4 percent of surveyed females had that preference.

Females, according to the report, showed higher passion for the service industry, such as retailing and culture-related companies. Government bodies and nongovernmental organizations are also favored by female job-hoppers.

Moreover, metropolises with better economies, more opportunities and higher incomes such as Beijing and Shanghai are more attractive to job-hoppers, with the report saying that nearly 34 percent of those surveyed wished to find a new job in first-tier cities.

"The service industry usually has a slower pace of work compared with IT and manufacturing companies, which can offer females a more relaxed working environment," said Gao Yan, a 31-year-old from Shanghai, who left her job at a foreign trade company to become a civil servant last year so she could spend more time caring for her baby.

"My current pay is about two-thirds of my previous one, but I get more flexible working time. There are pros and cons for everything and a pay cut is worthwhile to me because I have much more time to keep my little son company."