Why go buttoned-down? Internet companies No 1 choice for Chinese job seekers, data shows

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Internet and e-commerce companies have dislodged banking as the most favoured sector for new job seekers in China, in spite of lower salaries. Photo: SCMP Handout

Published: 12:45pm, 12 Apr 2017Updated: 11:01pm, 12 Apr 2017

Banking and finance, step aside. Internet and e-commerce companies have become the most sought after employers among Chinese white-collar jobseekers in the first quarter of 2017, despite their lower pay, a recent survey showed.

They also topped the rankings as businesses with the most job vacancies in the world’s second largest economy, followed by firms in real estate and financial services, according to a report released by Zhaopin, a New York-listed Chinese job portal.

Separately, the study indicated Beijing, regardless of its notorious air pollution, remains the country’s best paying and most competitive job market with 96 candidates per vacancy, followed by Shenzhen, a municipality in Guangdong bordering Hong Kong.

China’s rapid ascent to the top of the world’s internet landscape, led by home-grown giants Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group, has seen tens of thousands of young white collar workers gravitate towards the emerging sector from their traditional hands-down favourites of finance and civil service.

Bicycles are pictured outside the private office of a bicycle-sharing startup at UrWork coworking space in Shenzhen. Photo: Reuters

That is in spite of the fact that banking, finance as well as consulting remain the best-paying industries in China, with internet and e-commerce even dropping out of the top 10, Zhaopin data showed.

Both Beijing and Shenzhen are home to a bevy of tech corporations, such as Tencent, Baidu, Huawei and LeEco. The Chinese capital was a breeding ground of China’s first batch of internet companies thanks in part to a steady pipeline of qualified graduates from Peking University and Tsinghua Universityy.