Fake Job Hunters Wanted

Some 200 to 300 people in this room are pretending to want a job

It looks like hongbaos or red envelopes in China, have arrived in Hong Kong.

A recent job fair organized by the government of Ningbo promoted 820 positions with annual salaries as high as 3 million yuan (US$432,000) were apparently available.

The event was held at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, where 51 recruiters, from universities research institutes, state-owned enterprises, private companies and NGOs were looking for people from Hong Kong to fill the positions.

The job fair was organized by the Ningbo government

The Ningbo Human Resources Service Centre that organized the event, is a public institution under the Ningbo human resources authorities, and the job fair was arranged with support from the Beijing Liaison Office in Hong Kong, and Ningxing Group, which is the Ningbo government's investment vehicle.

Five days before the event, an advertisement was circulated on WeChat, which was looking to hire part-time actors to make the job fair look well attended.

"You need to prepare a resume and wait for an interview, which will be conducted for appearance sake," the advert said.

"Salary of HK$200 will be paid at the scene. Only nine places are left now. Add me [as a friend on WeChat] if you are interested. I will put you into a chat group."

A Hong Kong-based reporter went undercover to sign up, and was recruited as an "actor", but on the day of the fair was told there was enough people and didn't need to take part. The reporter still got the HK$200 -- easy money for just showing up! -- which was then donated to a charity.

Having fake job hunters helped boost attendance numbers

At the fair, the recruiter told the reporter there were 200 to 300 people paid to be there. She also said the liaison office and Ningxing Group were not involved in finding part-time actors.

"Unemployment rate in Hong Kong is so low. It's unlikely for such a recruitment fair to be popular here. But every government has its performance goals," the recruiter said.

"There are some companies paying money to hire people to fill the room and make it a lively scene. In return, they will have a better relationship with the Ningbo government when they do business there," she said, adding nothing illegal was taking place.

Meanwhile after the event, some people were seen receiving HK$200 each from a man who was standing across from the hotel in a park.

Some of the companies were contacted to ask if they knew some of the applicants were fake, but they were not aware -- except one noticed it was strange that one woman wanted to take a picture while she was being interviewed...

Sound familiar back on the mainland? It's not unusual for companies to hand out hongbaos as "transportation allowances", but in Hong Kong?

Perhaps someone needs to explain to the Ningbo Human Resources Service Centre that Hong Kong operates under "one country, two systems", and the latter part means no hongbaos!

App for Paid Coverage

A screen grab showing the various jobs on offer

There's car hailing apps in China like Uber and Didi Chuxing that help you get to where you want to go, but what if you want a reporter to write a flattering story about your company, perhaps because your boss wants to inflate his ego, or a way to boost your stock price?

Then it's time to get onto the app Zhao Jizhe (找记者) -- "Find a Journalist" in Chinese.

Much like those car-hailing apps, Zhao Jizhe offers services to companies who are willing to pay a range of prices for media coverage. For as little as 1,000 yuan (around US$150), you can get a decent write-up in one publication. But shell out 8,000 yuan, and the article will be written by a senior writer and guaranteed coverage in 25 publications, including four well-known ones.

First companies post their demands and deadline, and then the journalists who fit the bill will bid for the job, touting which publications they can place the article in. Then the company picks the best person for the job and then arranges payment through the app.

This is very similar to the old school way of doing journalism in China -- with red envelopes.

At press conferences, companies would hand out hongbao in the hopes they'd get good reports from journalists.

Hardly anyone refused these red envelopes because hey -- it's cash! And companies would claim it was "transportation money" for the reporters to get to and from the press conference or event. The amount could range from a few hundred yuan to several thousand, depending on the firm. The higher paying companies were usually car or oil industry related...

This would seriously affect not only the quality of journalism, but also the readers' perception of the companies they were reading about. Perhaps paid journalism is how some stock prices went up? Someone should do a study on that.

In any event Zhao Jizhe is very much on the same lines, though the high-tech version.

Unfortunately journalists in China are paid so little, that the money is very tempting. We all need to make a living, right?

But then again who believes what's written in state media anyway?