Tech sector leaps over finance to top spot in wage race

Salaries in IT offer more room for growth as profits and potential stagnate in banking

First it was Silicon VaIley. Now it’s happening in Zhongguancun.

Average salaries in the mainland’s information technology sector have exceeded those in finance for the first time since 2008, according to data from the national statistics agency.

The average worker in the mainland’s information transmission, software and information technology fields took home 122,478 yuan (HK$139,114) last year, outstripping the 117,418 yuan average annual income in banking, brokerage and insurance in 2016, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

It was the first time tech-sector wages were higher than those in finance since industry-specific wage data became available nine years ago.

Finance had been the toppaying industry on the mainland for the first eight years of the survey, offering jobs with the highest average annual income.

So much so that jobs at state banks became known as “gold rice bowls”.

But those gold rice bowls have been losing their shine as revenues and profits stagnate. The country’s big four state-owned banks quietly slashed a collective 19,000 jobs last year.

Meanwhile, the tech sector has boomed, with internet giants Tencent and Alibaba now among the world’s biggest companies.

In 2015, salaries in the two industries drew more or less level, with finance employees earning 114,777 yuan on average per year and tech workers 112,042 yuan.

The bureau’s calculations are based on a nationwide survey of 179 million employees.

Meng Canwen, the bureau’s chief statistician, said salaries had risen in the tech industry largely because of consistent and rapid growth.

Meng said that at the same time finance sector income had been affected by salary restrictions on senior bank officials and by a downturn in the stock market.

Terence Chong, associate professor of economics of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the mainland’s embrace of technology offered good salary prospects for the country’s young, despite their lack of experience in the workplace.

“If someone has a good idea, he or she can make a lot of money very quickly,” Chong said.

That was in contrast to finance, where workers were usually promoted on seniority.

If someone has a good idea, he or she can make a lot of money very quickly

TERENCE CHONG, PROFESSOR

Lu Zhengwei, chief economist at Industrial Bank in Shanghai, said the internet business was a new gold mine for the country’s top talent.

While the finance industry faced tighter regulation, the technology sector still had huge room for growth in areas such has artificial intelligence and driverless cars, he said.

Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing had the lowest annual incomes last year – 33,612 yuan, or almost half the average annual salary for all industries.

Jobs with the highest income growth last year were public administration, social security and administration, education, health and social work, according to the bureau.