Digital Transformation and Innovation will empower China's Economy in 2020

Shanghai, 04 December 2019: Professional recruitment services firm, Michael Page, today launched the China Salary Benchmark 2020 Reports for 6 major cities in China: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Suzhou and Chengdu, reflecting the acceleration in technology transformation with multiple cutting-edge technologies being applied in multiple industries. The demand of interdisciplinary talents will be increased generally across different sectors.
In a bid to push for the upscaling and transformation of its manufacturing industry, China has set up a 147.2 billion yuan national investment fund that will go to both growth stage and mature companies for new materials, equipment and most importantly, up-to-date technology.  
Moving into this digital era will intensify the demand for specialized technological skills in China. Rupert Forster, Managing Director for Michael Page North and East China confirmed this saying, “We expect continued interest in those with experience in driving digital transformation. This will in turn help firms gain more value and ROI relative to competitors.”
As industries increase investment in digitalisation, demand for digital & e-commerce technology talent, cloud architects, engineers, data scientists, data architects and analytics talent are in high demand, especially those who can help achieve better business results with data insights. According to the Salary Benchmark 2020 report for Shanghai, employees in tech discipline can expect a 20% average salary increase when switching jobs within similar industries. 
Besides pushing the boundaries of technology itself, digital transformation and high-technology is predicted to be further put into application in different sectors. Peggy Zhu, Director of Michael Page China said, “Digital transformation has deep influence in traditional industries. 5G, IoT and e-commerce also lead to a new direction for industries like engineering and procurement.”
Healthcare and Life Science industry has great potential this year. With the encouragement from the government, there is an explosive growth of new drug research which leads to increasing demand for clinical medical researchers and medical professionals. Meanwhile, the technology upgrade in healthcare and life science industry is especially worth keeping an eye on. With more investments pour into the application of big data and artificial intelligence in healthcare, there is an emerging number of start-ups longing for talents with both big data experience and clinical knowledge. Meanwhile, there is a notable rise of Digital Therapeutics (DTx) as the pharmaceutical industry has become increasing interested in digital health space. 
Some traditional industries also gradually being impacted by the digital transformation, for example finance and human resources. The rise of FinTech is drastically changing the finance industry. In the environment of tightening regulations and compliance, technology such as RegTech can make the process of Know Your Customer (KYC) more efficient, Big Data can assist the analysis of financial information and digital banking can provide better user experience to customers. Human Resources industry is also using data science to assist organisational structuring and recruiting. Jesaline Huang, Regional Director of Michael Page China said, “The demand of digital transformation exists in all sectors. Those interdisciplinary talents who masters skills in high-technologies and understand specific industries at the same time will be even more popular in the talent market.”
There is a growing confidence in China’s economic independence thanks to the shift towards higher-end production, as well as more service and consumption-driven growth. Recruitment is maturing too, as clients and candidates expect improved service. However contrary to popular belief, candidates are clearly becoming more cautious, choosing stable occupations over more “adventurous” industries. Regional Managing Director for Michael Page Greater China Andy Bentote commented, “Traditional sectors, such as banking, regain candidates’ attention as they seems like a safer, more stable bet nowadays.”  
Apart from the trend of technological transformation, the Michael Page China Salary Benchmark Report this year highlighted not only the salary level of different job functions, but also the industry trend and popular positions in different cities correspondingly. In the other hand, to better study on China human resources market, the reports dig deep in the confidence level of China job seekers and investigate on the preference of China employees, giving Chinese employers and their recruiters a hint of the shift of future working preference.
Michael Page spokespeople will be available for interviews if you would like more employment insights and salary trends in 2020. Please contact Germaine Lim germainelim@michaelpage.com.sg for more information. 
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Editor’s notes: The Michael Page China Salary Benchmark 2020 is derived from 100,000 data points in our proprietary data and network in China, which includes job advertisements and placements from July 2018 to June 2019. Supplemental information from various PageGroup studies, such as the Job Applicant Confidence Index and insights from our business leaders, as well as the recruiters’ interactions with companies and industry professionals, are taken into consideration.