Over Half of Chinese Job Seekers Want to Work in the AI Industry Amid AI Boom

Nearly 60% of Job Seekers in China Consider AI-Related Careers
Survey Shows AI Industry Most Popular Among Emerging Sectors

Nearly 60% of job seekers in China are considering AI-related occupations, according to a survey.

Chinese media such as Jiemian News cited a report released yesterday by the Chinese employment platform Zhilian Zhaopin, stating on the 25th that "Among those hoping to seek jobs or currently job hunting in emerging industrial sectors, 49.2% expressed their intention to work in the AI industry in the future."

Scene from a job fair held in China. Sangkwan News

AI ranked first, followed by new energy sectors (41.7%), advanced manufacturing (36.3%), residential services (24%), and cross-border e-commerce (14.8%) as popular fields.

By occupation, the report stated that 57.2% of job seekers want to work in AI-related roles such as AI engineers. Respondents who chose the AI industry answered that "there are more development prospects in new jobs" (24.3%), "higher wages can be earned" (21.5%), and "they can challenge themselves and gain a greater sense of achievement" (11.4%).

The report noted that this year, with the rapid advancement of AI technology and the accelerated integration of AI across various fields related to the "Chinese AI model" DeepSeek, demand for emerging AI-related jobs has also increased. It interpreted that future industries such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology are setting the direction for a new scientific and technological revolution, thus increasing interest among job seekers and employees.

According to the report, the top industry that employees wish to switch to is the IT sector (32.5%), followed by new energy vehicles (27.8%), trade, wholesale, and retail (22.5%), and energy and environmental protection industries (21.9%).

The main reason for job changes was dissatisfaction with "salary levels and welfare benefits," which increased from 47.4% last year to 48.8%, ranking first. This was followed by "uncertainty in business prospects and business contraction" (35.3%).

The report particularly analyzed that the proportion of people who answered "the company's development prospects are unclear" has significantly increased. It added, "In these rapidly changing times, employees expect companies to clarify their development directions," emphasizing that "companies should focus on attracting and retaining talent and establish an environment of equality and respect within the workplace."

Chinese companies are also actively competing to attract talent. According to Zhilian Zhaopin statistics, the recruitment scale for algorithm engineers and positions in machine learning and deep learning increased by 46.8%, 40.1%, and 5.1% respectively compared to the previous year as of February this year. The average monthly salaries for these positions were 23,510 yuan (approximately 4.77 million KRW), 21,534 yuan (approximately 4.36 million KRW), and 24,015 yuan (approximately 4.87 million KRW), respectively..

At the beginning of this month, at the annual major political event Lianghui (the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference), the newly mentioned strategic development field of "embodied intelligence" (AI robots interacting with real environments) saw increased recruitment in robot algorithm engineers (41.4% increase), robot debugging engineers (57.5% increase), and industrial robot engineers (6% increase). The application rates from job seekers for these fields also appeared to have increased by around 200% compared to last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.