The results, released late yesterday, reveal total revenues increased to RMB895.5m (£100.4m), while online recruitment services revenues increased 32.5% year-on-year to RMB588.4m and the group posted gross margin of 72.4% compared with 73.2% in Q2 2017.

However, losses from foreign currency conversions adversely affected earnings per share with the group posting a fully diluted loss per share of RMB0.92.

Commenting on the results, president and CEO Rick Yan said: “Our online business maintained an uptrend in revenue per employer as we successfully drove greater spending by existing, more sophisticated customers and worked through increased prices on certain entry-level online packages among new, smaller sized customers.

“We also saw positive customer demand for our other HR services … Demonstrating proven capabilities, dedicated coverage and industry expertise built over two decades, 51job is further cementing its leadership and remains uniquely positioned to capture all aspects of the HR opportunity in China.”

• Comment below on this story. You can also tweet us to tell us your thoughts or share this story with a friend. Our editorial email is [email protected]