Chinese online recruitment website 51job.com (JOBS) announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter of 2008 ended September 30, 2008 and said it had total revenues of CNY209.0 million, a 5.1% decline from the third quarter of 2007.

Rick Yan, president and CEO of 51job, stated: "As we had expected, the recruitment market slowed in the third quarter as employers faced restrictions on normal business practices and individuals were less focused on job searches during the Olympic Games period. In addition, corporate customers moderated their hiring activities due to increasing concern about global markets and China's economic growth."

Print advertising revenues for the third quarter of 2008 decreased 27.1% to CNY83.2 million compared with CNY114.1 million for the same quarter in 2007. The decline was primarily the result of a reduction in advertisements during the Olympics, decrease in customer demand and lower average revenue per page. Print advertising prices charged in each city were generally unchanged year-over-year, but average revenue per page in the third quarter of 2008 decreased 23.4% over the same quarter in 2007 due to a greater proportion of advertising volume coming from lower priced cities. The estimated number of print advertising pages generated in the third quarter of 2008 was 4,204 compared with 4,419 pages in the same quarter in 2007.

Online recruitment services revenues for the third quarter of 2008 were CNY77.7 million, a 6.4% increase from CNY73.0 million for the same quarter of the prior year. The increase was attributable to a greater number of employers using the company's online services and higher average revenue per unique employer, but third quarter growth was partially offset by a decrease in online recruitment activity during the Olympic Games period and a slowdown in customer demand. Unique employers using the company's online recruitment services increased 4.8% to 62,023 in the third quarter of 2008 compared with 59,177 in the same quarter of the prior year.

Gross profit for the third quarter of 2008 was CNY104.3 million compared with CNY117.8 million for the same quarter of the prior year. Gross margin, which is equal to gross profit divided by net revenues, decreased to 52.7% in the third quarter of 2008 compared with 56.5% in the same quarter in 2007 due primarily to an increase in staff and labor costs.

Operating expenses for the third quarter of 2008 were CNY82.3 million compared with CNY82.4 million for the same quarter of 2007. Operating expenses as a percentage of net revenues were 41.6% for the third quarter of 2008 compared with 39.5% for the third quarter of 2007. Excluding share-based compensation expense, operating expenses as a percentage of net revenues were 38.9% in the third quarter of 2008 compared with 36.3% in the third quarter of 2007.

Net income for the third quarter of 2008 increased 6.0% to CNY28.3 million from CNY26.7 million for the same quarter in 2007.