Salaries in Shanghai rose by 7.9 percent on average this year, 0.4 percentage points lower than last year, according to a survey released by CIIC HR Management Consulting Co yesterday.
"The lower salary increase is due to the economic slowdown in China," said Sandy Zhou, executive general manager of the company's human capital survey and data solution center.
Despite that, it is still the biggest salary increase in first-tier cities in China. Salaries rose by 7.7 percent in Beijing and 7.6 percent in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, according to the survey carried out among 2,100 companies.
The average salary increase in top-tier cities was 7.8 percent, lower than 8.8 percent in second-tier cities. The average was 8 percent for the entire country, 0.6 percentage points lower than last year.
"The days of fast pay rises in China are gone. We will see even slower increase in the future, based on the economic growth in China and the paying capacity of companies," Zhou said.
CIIC predicted that in 2016, the average salary will increase by 7.9 percent in China, 7.7 percent in Shanghai, 7.4 percent in Beijing and 7.6 percent in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Zhou said the Internet industry will see higher salary increase than other industries, while traditional manufacturing and real estate will have the lowest increase this year.
The government has been encouraging Internet innovation and enforcing strict regulations on the housing market.
The company also said that students who graduated from colleges last year and work in first-tier cities enjoyed an average 4-5 percent higher starting salary than the graduates in 2013 as the living costs were higher.
Shanghai led the rankings of starting salaries for bachelors and master degree holders in four first-tier cities in the past year, with 4,626 yuan (US$ 726) and 6,545 yuan per month.
But doctorate degree holders in Shanghai ranked third with 9,634 yuan per month, well behind 10,396 yuan in Beijing and 9,796 yuan in Guangzhou.
Zhou also said that as more and more people born in the 1990s began to start working, more fresh graduates were changing jobs in the first year after graduation itself.
In the past year, 24 percent of graduates quit their first jobs, 2 percentage points higher than last year.
Among the top reasons given for quitting was that they did not find the jobs interesting or simply did not like the jobs. Among other reasons were low pay and overwork.
"People born after 1990 now pay more attention to their personal interests and have less economic stress than those born before them," Zhou said. "So it's easier for them to give up jobs which older people would have cherished as they ensured stable income."
