Bid to create fairer job market

With the job market entering the busy season after Spring Festival, Beijing’s human resources authorities recently issued a notice urging the sponsors of job fairs to strictly scrutinize the qualifications of employers, their recruitment advertisements and promotional materials to ensure there is no discrimination against job seekers.

The notice also demands there be kiosk inside the venue where complaints can be made about any false recruitment ads or discrimination by employers.

These are timely and necessary steps toward regulating Beijing’s job market and it is hoped other regions can follow suit. Discrimination has long been an outstanding problem in job markets nationwide, especially at job fairs. People cannot but ask why that should be the case.

There are a variety of factors behind this phenomenon, such as the lack of awareness among job seekers of their rights and interests. However, the most important one is the lack of timely and effective supervision from the organizers over employers’ unconcealed discriminatory terms against job applicants at some job fairs.

The absence of an on-site channel for the receiving of complaints at the majority of job fairs nationwide is evidence of the lack of supervision. When there is such a channel, it exerts a certain deterrence effect on employers who might otherwise discriminate against certain job seekers. Also, without such a channel, any after-event complaints against employers by job applicants are hard to verify, and considering the time and financial costs involved, those suffering job discrimination are usually reluctant to report any perceived mistreatment.

The establishment of a complaint channel at job fairs means a substantial step toward checking discrimination in the job market, but to be truly effective it also needs a series of supportive measures from the regulators.