More pay rises on offer as Chinese firms go on recruitment drive, survey finds
Employers in China were willing to pay more to attract staff in the second quarter as companies got back on the recruitment track, an employment survey has found.
Some 41 per cent of new recruits were offered pay increases of between 5 and 10 per cent compared with their previous positions, up from 40 per cent in the first quarter, according to a study by Beijing-based international recruitment and human resources consultancy RMG Selection.
And 14 per cent of new staff came on board with pay rises of between 10 and 20 per cent in the second quarter, compared with 12.1 per cent in the first. Salary increases of between 20 and 30 per cent were offered to 6 per cent of incoming staff in Q2, up from 3.8 per cent in the previous quarter.
The results were based on a survey of nearly 1,400 companies in eight industries.
In all, 91.2 per cent of employers said they increased headcounts in the second quarter.
RMG Selection chief executive Robert Parkinson said there was huge demand for professionals in the logistics, technology, health care and legal sectors in the second quarter after some employers put recruitment on hold in the first three months of the year because of Lunar New Year.
“The technology sector is always an important part of China’s growth prospects, and companies are more willing to pay to retain or attract young talent,” Parkinson said, adding that government initiatives to promote innovation would continue to buoy the tech sector.
Tech sector recruits were among the biggest gainers, with a 10-20 per cent pay premium going to 22.4 per cent of workers taking up new jobs in the IT, internet, communications and electronics industry. That was in contrast to just 4.7 per cent attracting such increases in the first three months of the year, the survey revealed.
Multinational corporations were also more generous to new talent, offering about 30 per cent of their new prospects salary increases of between 10 and 30 per cent. That was about double the rate among state firms, the survey said.
