China's AI Boom Creates Talent Crisis
Sign up for ARPU: Stay ahead of the curve on tech news.
China's burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) industry is facing a severe talent shortage despite a surge in job openings, according to a report by Maimai, a professional online network similar to LinkedIn.
The report, released this week, reveals that AI-related roles account for a quarter of all openings within the top 20 "new economy" job types on Maimai this year. These in-demand positions include algorithm engineer, AI engineer, recommendation algorithm engineer, large language model (LLM) specialist, and natural language processing expert.
The AI talent shortage is particularly acute, with a supply-demand ratio of 0.39, indicating more than two job openings for every qualified candidate. This contrasts sharply with the overall Chinese job market, where two jobseekers typically compete for each opening.
"In general, China's job market for the country's top brains remains tight with two jobseekers jostling for each opening," the report states. "In the first 10 months of 2024, the ratio further escalated to 2.06, highlighting intense competition among those looking for work, especially in the new energy vehicle industry, which climbed from 1.77 to 2.04, according to the report."
This talent crunch is particularly pronounced in the generative AI sector, where Chinese tech giants are engaged in fierce competition for skilled professionals. A recent posting on the recruitment platform Liepin advertised a LLM team leader position in Beijing with a salary of up to 5 million yuan ($686,000) per year.
Across various companies, AI-related roles dominate the list of high-demand positions. At Alibaba Group Holding, six of the top 10 positions with a supply-demand ratio below 1 are AI-related, while at Xiaohongshu, a social network similar to Instagram, nine of the top 10 positions are in AI.
TikTok owner ByteDance, Chinese food delivery giant Meituan, and Xiaohongshu led in terms of overall job creation in the first 10 months of 2024. Alibaba followed closely, followed by its fintech affiliate Ant Group and Tencent Holdings.
Despite the talent shortage, average monthly salary offers for top talent in tech have risen slightly to 42,874 yuan, significantly higher than the national average disposable income of 30,941 yuan.
The talent shortage is prompting Chinese tech giants to expand their recruitment efforts overseas, particularly in the areas of deep learning, AI engineering, and AI-generated content algorithms.
This severe talent shortage presents a significant challenge to China's ambitions to become a global leader in AI. Addressing this skills gap will require a concerted effort to invest in education and training, as well as to attract and retain top AI talent both domestically and internationally.