China expat jobs are increasing. In recent years, jobs in the fields of news, marketing, and engineering have been on the rise. According to the data from the foreign recruitment fair in Beijing in 2019, the service industry, it and the media industry have replaced the education industry as the main source of work for Chinese immigrants.
The fair was organized by the center for foreign talent research and the State Administration of foreign experts on Sunday, attracting more than 500 foreigners and providing nearly 1000 jobs. Great changes have taken place in the expatriate job market once dominated by language teachers. About half of the work at the show was in sales, media, marketing, and its departments, including positions for journalists, brand and communications managers, and software engineers.
“A certain level of Putonghua is an advantage,” said Yang, project manager of the research center “The highest paid jobs usually require the ability to speak Mandarin. Positions that require fluent Mandarin tend to pay more than the same positions without language requirements. ”
Since 2013, oasis games, the publisher of interactive games, has participated in the Beijing foreigner recruitment fair. The company translates Chinese games into 16 foreign languages and has 200 million people playing in 130 countries. AI Xuan, the company’s human resources representative, said that many Chinese companies are striving for greater international market share and are looking for talents with Chinese proficiency and understanding of Chinese culture. Most of the company’s foreign employees are freshmen, and they study Mandarin at Chinese universities through the exchange program, she said. The annual salary of these employees is about ￥180,000.
According to Yang of the research center, the income gap between foreigners and Chinese employees in the same position has narrowed over the past few decades. Yang said that in the 2000s, the annual salary of foreign employees will be five to ten times that of Chinese employees. Now the gap is narrowing, about two to three times, in part because salaries paid to Chinese are growing faster than expatriate salaries.
Statistics from the State Administration also show that China has attracted immigrants from Europe and Asia due to its rapid economic growth and a wide range of opportunities. Data collected at job fairs in Beijing over the past decade show that more than 50% of job seekers come from European countries, most of them from Spain and Portugal, while about 25% come from Asian countries, most of them from India.
Khan Ghulam, a 32-year-old Pakistani software engineer, has worked in a Sino US joint venture for two years. He attended the fair and found a high paid job at a Chinese start-up. “China’s development force in the international community has broad prospects and provides more opportunities for young people, which I believe will attract many overseas job seekers,” he said
Last year, China issued about 336000 work permits to foreigners. By the end of last year, China had more than 950000 immigrants working in the country. In contrast, only 180000 foreign workers were employed in China in 1996. The increase in the number of foreigners working in China has also increased services for foreigners.
Liu Chao, director of online food marketing, has found it more and more difficult for foreigners to keep a bilingual food marketing habit in China. Finding a restaurant that offers familiar food and getting a fast food delivery service are two major issues, Expatriates are an emerging consumer group with huge potential,” he said. China has great charm for the overseas Chinese, but only by bringing more convenience in life can they stay here longer.