According to figures from many job fairs for foreigners around China, positions for foreigners in China have seen a rapid increase in recent years.
No longer dominated by language teachers, an increase of over 50% in the service sectors such as IT, media, and engineering.
This phenomenon is likely to be national wide. where job openings for expats from 70 cities all over China are posted, non-education jobs take up about 70% of all jobs. Among them, the top 5 categories with the highest demand are Marketing/Advertising, International Trade, Sales & Business Development (BD), Business Analysis, and Engineering/Project Management.
The average salary for non-education positions is about 20,500 per month, depending on qualifications and industry.
For example, jobs requiring entry-level experience, which is the majority of job openings, are averaging a salary of 19,255 RMB. Mid-Senior level positions average salary is 20,932 RMB and Senior Executive positions average salary rises to 25,866 RMB (all salaries per month).
The income gap between foreigners and Chinese employees in the same positions has reduced in the past decades. Salaries paid to Chinese citizens have increased faster than expat salaries.
Chinese companies are beginning to show less discrimination between foreign and local employees and becoming more internationally adaptive.
Data display, only 13% of the positions make Chinese ability a necessary requirement, usually, this is simply due to the objective of the job such as translation, customer service, or sales.
However, being able to read and speak Chinese is always a big plus to any foreigner working in China. Positions that require fluent oral and written Mandarin tend to pay more than the same jobs without the language requirement.
In 2018, China issued approximately 336,000 work permits to foreigners and over 950,000 foreigners were working in the country as of the end of last year. The demand from the job market in China is large, however, the biggest problem for both job seekers and employers is that they cannot find each other. Therefore, finding a platform that can extensively connect candidates and employers will be crucial to the job hunt.
As the end of the school year is approaching, many international students in Shanghai begin planning their career paths in hopes of a brighter future in China. In addition to applying for jobs online, attending a job fair is also an option to find a career match for international students.