Recruiting in China

SHANGHAI employees saw their salaries increase 6.7 percent on average in the first half of the year, but the raise was the lowest of all China’s first-tier cities, according to a survey.

Pay rises in Shenzhen, Beijing and Guangzhou ranged from 7.1 percent to 8.8 percent, while the average level in second-tier cities was 7 percent, according to the survey by China International Intellectech (Shanghai) Corp.

It said 64 percent of Shanghai companies said they had increased pay for all employees, second only to Guangzhou, and no decreases were reported.

The state-owned human resources agency said the Shanghai increase was no surprise given that city pay levels were already high.

“The cost of employing people in Shanghai is very high after decades of fast growth,” said the CIIC survey center’s Pang Limin.

“The result matches our prediction of from 5 to 7 percent at the beginning of this year.”

Across the country, average pay rises dropped to 7 percent from 8.7 percent in the same period last year.

Pang attributed to the downward trend to China’s slowing economy.

Real estate replaced the Internet industry at the top of the pay rise list with an increase of 8.6 percent following a surge in house prices.

Pang said companies in Shanghai were entering a period of low pay rises as they had more mature human resources management systems with multiple staff incentives and flexible benefits, such as stock shares and allowances.

“Employers in other cities are learning such practices but they depend more on salary adjustment at this moment,” she said.

There were also more foreign ventures in Shanghai while Guangdong had more local private companies, which had the highest increase in the survey, Pang said.

Only 39 percent of companies surveyed in Shanghai said they would expand recruitment with budget increases for recruitment of 22 percent, both lowest of the four first-tier cities.