INCENTIVES ABOUND FOR SKILLED TALENT THAT CAN SUPPORT CHINA’S ENGINEERING BOOM

China’s renewed focus on owning technologies and designing products rather than just manufacturing them has led to exciting developments in the space and enormous government support to attract more such businesses. As a result, the engineering job market has seen substantial growth and demand for top talent in fields such as R&D, product development, design (mechanical and product), automation (software and hardware) and engineering. However, such candidates remain in short supply, which has led to increasing incentives and competition for top talent – making this possibly the best time to be a skilled engineering jobseeker in China.

High-tech Engineering Surges to Importance

These are some of the findings from The Inside Story of China , a monthly regional recruitment analysis undertaken by global recruitment expert Hays. Focusing on the Engineering sector, the analysis found that the manufacturing and operations business in China is changing from the objective of ‘Made in China’, to ‘create in China for the future’. This trend is directly linked to the engineering function as companies now want to design and develop products by themselves and own the technology within China.

However, owing to inflated costs of labour in more ‘traditional’ engineering industries like mechanical machinery, automotive, and electrical engineering (EE) over the last year have led many companies to move their plants into other lower-cost regions in Southeast Asia. This has resulted in an internal pivot to more high-tech industries like new energy, 5G, IoT wireless technologies or even the high-speed railways in China. There has also been a significant push from the government to promote high-tech industries by lowering the cost of investment in regions like the Jiangsu province and creating initiatives to develop tier 3 and tier 4 cities.

Incentives Abound for Skilled Candidates

But despite the growth and opportunities in the sector, appropriate talent is scarce in the market. Most companies are looking for candidates with good educational backgrounds, strong technical experience, and the ability to learn and facilitate the new trends in the market. There is a strong demand for engineers with the expertise to help companies build their core technology, as well as highly experienced people managers with a systematic approach to technology processes. However, such candidates can be difficult to find organically and often have to be headhunted.

This has resulted in a host of government-led incentives to attract high calibre talent, who can expect to receive a multitude of allowances to support their career move. Organisations also stand to gain from subsidised hiring and recruitment costs. Talent is particularly short in newer high-tech areas like IoT, 5G and wireless technologies, leading to more mobility options and moving costs being covered by organisations if candidates can bring experience in these areas.

Simon Lance, Managing Director of Hays Greater China commented, “China is currently working towards creating a complete supply chain system that will cover everything from payments to hardware, systems, and software. The goal is to create, design and innovate all of this within China – and at the centre of this is engineering. It is important that professionals in the field stay committed to continuously developing their skillsets at this time of rapid innovation, as the bullish outlook for engineering in China is focused on industries of the future that will continue to provide ample opportunities for growth.”

To read the full Inside Story of Engineering in China, please click here 

About Hays China

Hays Specialist Recruitment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. is one of China's leading recruitment companies in recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people across a wide range of industries and professions.
Hays has been in China for over a decade with operational offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. We boast a track record of success and growth, dealing in permanent positions across 14 different specialisms, including Accountancy & Finance, Banking & Financial Services, Digital Technology, Engineering, Finance Technology, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal, Life Sciences, Marketing & Digital, Office Professionals, Procurement, Supply Chain and Sales. Hays China was named Best Workplace™ and Best Workplaces™ for Women in Greater China 2019, and recently ranked one of the the Best Workplaces™ in Asia by Great Place to Work®.

About Hays

Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 31 December 2019 the Group employed 11,600 staff operating from 266 offices in 33 countries across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2019:

the Group reported net fees of £1,129.7 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £248.8 million;

the Group placed around 81,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 254,000 people into temporary assignments;

18% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 27% in Germany, 23% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 32% in Rest of World (RoW);

the temporary placement business represented 57% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 43% of net fees;

Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA