China faces AI talent shortage in an otherwise booming ‘new economy’ sector, report finds

A quarter of ‘new economy’ job openings this year on the Maimai platform have been directly related to AI, as Big Tech firms fight for top talent

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AI has emerged as a bright spot in a bleak domestic job market in China’s “new economy”. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:00am, 21 Dec 2024

China’s booming artificial intelligence (AI) industry has a plethora of job openings but not enough talent to fill them, according to a recent report from Maimai, a Chinese professional online network similar to LinkedIn.

A quarter of openings among the top 20 “new economy” job types on Maimai this year through October were directly related to AI, the company revealed in a report published this week. Related roles include algorithm engineer, AI engineer, recommendation algorithm engineer, large language model (LLM) specialist, and natural language processing expert.

Cloud computing remains the tightest market, with a supply-demand ratio of 0.27, or roughly four job openings per qualified candidate. Search algorithms follow closely with a ratio of 0.39, or more than two openings per candidate.

AI has emerged as a bright spot in a bleak domestic job market in China’s “new economy”, a term used to describe high-growth sectors such as information technology, healthcare and renewable energy.

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In general, China’s job market for the country’s top brains remains tight with two jobseekers jostling for each opening. 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.