The labor market in the second quarter shrank slightly, as the wider economy continued to stabilize and recover, according to a report released on Thursday. But it predicted jobs would rebound slowly through December.

The report, jointly released by online recruiter Zhaopin and the China Institute for Employment Research, uses an index developed by the institute to monitor the trend of the labor market. The smaller the CIER Index is, the more competitors there are for job vacancies and the more intensive the labor market is.

Reaching 2.46 in the first quarter - its highest point since 2011 - the index saw a slight decrease to 2.03 in the second quarter. The report attributed the decrease to the macroeconomy.

However, different industries have different demands for talent. The report found that the service sector and private sector contributed more to employment than before. The labor market in China is also undergoing a broad restructuring, along with the national economy.

Financial and Internet industries topped the list with strong demand for workers based on the CIER Index, while the traditional service sector and manufacturing industry have more job applicants than job vacancies.

According to Zhaopin, talent demand in the financial industry in the first half of the year increased by 58 percent year-on-year. In first-tier cities it increased by 75 percent.

At the same time, the number of jobs offered by the Internet industry increased by 44 percent year-on-year. Additionally, jobs related to e-commerce saw growth of 90 percent in smaller cities, as the Internet penetrated the whole country.

Compared with private companies and joint ventures, State-owned enterprises have been more cautious in hiring. Zhaopin found that the number of jobs offered by State-owned enterprises dropped 19 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year.

Zhang Ying, deputy head of employment support at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said China will continue to keep employment stable in the second half of this year.