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A new survey shows that about 42 percent of private enterprise employees looking to change jobs would rather work for foreign-funded businesses.

Workers in the private sector seem to be the most active job-hoppers, with 64.5 percent of them saying they are considering changing jobs, according to the survey by Zhaopin.com, one of the largest human resources service providers in China.

The findings coincide with publication of the best-selling novel "Du Lala's Promotion", which features a simple girl who started employment at a small private company and worked her way up to a job with one of the world's top 500 businesses. The young woman has become a shining example for many Chinese employees at relatively unknown private enterprises.

Chen Xu, vice-president of Zhaopin.com, said that changing jobs played a very significant role in career development and people should not only focus on promotion within the same company.

"There are considerable differences between private and foreign-funded companies, including ideology, the way of thinking and communicating as well as different ways of management," said Zhang Yong, director of human resources at Zhaopin.com.

It would be very difficult for employees of private firms to adapt to the culture in foreign companies, he added.

He said that with the development of the Chinese economy, many Chinese enterprises have been gradually globalizing their outlook. As such, job-seekers should not choose a company just because it is State-owned, private or foreign-funded.

He said the potential for career development should be their top consideration.

Meanwhile, a recent survey conducted by the Shanghai World Expo Group on the job market for fresh graduates revealed that foreign-funded firms are more willing to fire fresh graduates compared with a year ago.

Newly graduated students, for the first time, want to work for State-owned companies because stability has become the main factor in choosing a job in the wake of the financial crisis.

Foreign-funded firms are now second choice, with the number of graduates looking for such jobs decreasing as much as 36 percent from a year ago, the survey found.

Employment in the private sector is still least popular but the number increased to 7.67 percent from 1.73 percent last year. However, private firms are still the most significant employers in the country, hiring 75 percent of China's workers.