According to a report in China Daily, higher recruitment salaries are being offered in South East China. The analysis is from a survey by job board Zhaopin based on salaries in the fourth quarter of 2023.

 Most of the cities that placed in the top 10 in terms of monthly recruitment salaries in the fourth quarter (all above CNY 10,000, or USD 1,406) are located in the nation's eastern and southern provinces, including Suzhou and Nanjing in Jiangsu province and Guangzhou and Zhuhai in Guangdong.

 Conversely, cities in the northern and northeastern provinces, including Harbin in Heilongjiang province, Shenyang in Liaoning province and Shijiazhuang in Hebei province, offered much lower recruitment salaries in the fourth quarter — roughly CNY 8,000 (USD 1,125) per month.

 The report shows that the nation's 38 major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, offered an average recruitment salary of CNY 10,420 (USD 1,465) per month in the fourth quarter of last year — 3% higher than the previous quarter but 1.3% lower than during the same period in 2022.

 Of the 38 major cities, Shanghai companies offered the highest recruitment salaries during all four quarters of last year. During the fourth quarter, the average recruitment salary was CNY 13,888 (USD 1,953) per month.

 Beijing companies posted the second-highest recruitment salaries in the fourth quarter, CNY 13,352 (USD 1,878 monthly), and Shenzhen placed third with CNY 13,067 (USD 1,838) monthly, according to the report.

 The report said that jobs requiring strong knowledge of finance and technology, such as investment consultants and artificial intelligence engineers, offered much higher salaries. An AI engineer, for example, earned about CNY 22,788 (USD 3,205) per month on average in the fourth quarter.

 Zhaopin said that the job market started showing some new changes brought about by the improving economy at the end of the year.