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China: Finance offers highest starting salaries

Employees at financial institutions have the highest starting salaries among 2015 graduates, earning over 10,000 yuan ($1,611) a month, according to a recent survey from 51job.com, a leading recruiting website in China, nen.com.cn reported on April 8.

The website conducted a survey by calling on people to report their starting salaries online about two weeks ago. About 2,318 respondents participated in the survey, with more than 600 of them fresh graduates of 2015.

At the same time, it conducted a questionnaire of employees from 263 companies who have more than 2,000 employees.

The survey shows that 219 of the 263 surveyed companies offer a starting salary of over 5,000 yuan a month. It also found that the starting salaries for fresh graduates this year are generally 10 percent higher than that of 2014, whose growth rate is faster than the pay rise for current employees.

The highest starting salaries can be found in the financial sector, with the ones for college graduates and master degree graduates both over 10,000 yuan a month and the highest may reach 17,000 yuan. More than half of the high-salary posts relate to product development and industry research, and the salary of employees in these posts may exceed 1 million yuan a year in three to five working years.

The graduates majoring in engineering usually get a starting salary between 8,000 to 10,000 yuan a month in the real estate or construction industry, while the planning or management posts in the industries often offer a starting salary of around 5,000 yuan a month.

In the automobile industry, vocational college graduates can earn 4,000 to 5,000 yuan a month depending on their skills in their first year. The salaries for college graduates and master degree graduates range from 4,000 to 10,000 yuan a month, with the ones in research posts earning more.

The starting salary differs most within industries rather than between different industries. Take the e-commerce industry as an example, the lowest starting salary is 3,500 yuan a month and the highest 16,000 yuan a month.

It is noteworthy that many companies offer the same salaries for college graduates and master degree graduates, or only offer 1,000 to 2,000 yuan a month more to the latter.

Employers pay more attention to the productivity of the employees rather than their educational background, as the starting salaries of vocational college graduates are approaching those of college graduates, said Feng Lijuan, leading human resource expert with 51job.com.

An increasing number of graduates do not intend to achieve their dreams by relying on jobs, said Feng.

She also noted that creating a flexible and interesting work environment and more opportunities are the key to attracting young job seekers.