The period just after the Spring Festival is traditionally a time for many people to change jobs. But this year, the number of potential job hoppers in Shanghai has surged to its highest level in three years, due to an economic slowdown. The most turnover is taking place at state-owned companies and institutions.

Sarah Liu used to work for a global consumer goods company, and started to apply for new jobs before the Spring Festival. After interviews with several companies, she finally got an offer from a local Internet firm after the vacation, taking a job as a training supervisor.

"There are many job opportunities in the market after the Spring Festival. So many people would do some preparations before the festival, and change the company after getting the year-end bonus,"

"Personally, I would choose the Internet sector, as it is developing very fast in recent years. And the salary increase is also something I would think about," said Sarah Liu.

More than half of the white-collar respondents to a survey conducted by a major Chinese job hunting website say they have updated their resumes and started to look for new jobs this spring, a more than 10% increase from last year.

And only 40% of the white collar workers say they are confident about their career, the lowest in three years. Experts say due to the overall economic slow down, many people are changing to positions that can earn more.

"One of the core reasons for job-hopping is still the salary, together with other consideration of career development and working environment,"

"As the economy is going down, some companies and industries can't offer the good benefits they provided before, so employees prefer to make changes," said Rex Gao, Learning Director of Zhaopin College.

Gao says sectors like real-estate development, energy and manufacturing are all seeing a great number of job hoppers, and most of the companies involved are state-owned.

"One is the government-run institutions which are previously considered "secure" jobs. But now due to the economic status, the payment and welfare in this sector has been affected,"

"The second is the traditional state-owned companies which are reducing production output, which is affecting employee's career development," said Gao.

Most employees still choose Shanghai as their ideal working place. But some are flowing to other cities like Beijing and Nanjing as well.

Now, more than 10% of job-hoppers have received offers. And a large number of people are expected to keep looking for new jobs until April.