Competition for white-collar jobs became fiercer in the third quarter, with more than 35 job seekers contending for the same position on average.

This is a jump from 26 and 29 in the first and second quarters this year, a Chinese human resources website said on Tuesday.

Zhaopin.com's third-quarter jobs report for white-collar workers showed that demand for talent was shrinking with the slowdown of China's economic growth. At the same time, more such workers were considering changing jobs, leading to more competition among job hunters, especially those in Northeast China and in second-tier cites.