I don't think so. There's the economic recession driving more people to look for work alternatives, but this doesn't work in favor of new teachers.

1. You get the short end of the stick in the law of supply and demand. Now you've got a lot of competition and are less likely to get a good job and more likely to end up in the middle of nowhere in an apartment worse than the cheapest hotel you've ever seen, and treated like a chump by your Chinese boss.

2. Unless you're in a field in which living in China really has relevance, your time overseas can count against you when you go home. You will have basically taken yourself out of the job market for a year or two or more, kind of like being in a race and walking off the track to work in the snack bar and then trying to get back in the race.

3. Don't plan on learning Chinese and thinking this is going to be very useful in your future, or that you're going to become a translator. Even if you got a lucky start with Chinese (I did) and picked up the basics with alacrity, it's a bitch of a language and most everyone I've met who didn't come to China explicitly to study the language didn't learn much beyond survival basics bolstered with a lot of gesturing and help from bilingual Chinese people. When you land that 20 hour a week job in a private school, and you have your 5-10 lessons to plan and homework to grade, well, you will spend far more time drinking than studying Chinese, 'cause you'll want a break. You might be able to learn Chinese if you get a Chinese girl or boyfriend that DOESN'T speak English, but if not careful you can end up sounding like a bar girl.

4. You're going to get sick a lot, and it's going to be on a scale you're not used to. The colds and flus of 5 years will be compressed into one, at least if you work with kids. A cold here can easily be a respiratory infection of one sort or another, and can also easily last a month. You will likely spit more than ever before. If you've never spit out gobs on phlegm onto the sidewalk, you will have ample opportunity to develop this skill.

5. You will likely be taken for granted and resent your fixed position at a lower rung in a hierarchy in which your boss is more of a demigod than any one you've had before.

On the other hand, the cultural experience, the friends you'll make, the vacations you'll take, and the students you'll have are priceless. Just don't have too many ideas about making a lot of money or being successful. The humility will do you good as well. But, as far as your other career is concerned, moving to China is likely to be a step backward rather than forward.

It all depends on what you want.

I guess I wanted the humiliation, the attention, the challenge, and finally a decent job after a couple years of undervalued hard work. Living in one's own country can seem far too easy when even eating breakfast or walking down the street can be a continual challenge in China.