Today, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is one of the regions with the strongest economic vitality in China and even in the world. According to the latest statistics, the GBA now has more than 50 "unicorn" companies, over 1,000 industry incubators and accelerators, and nearly 15,000 investment institutions.

 

In 2021, China officially released the "outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Vision 2035”, which clearly emphasised the layout for innovative developments in the GBA. 

 

Hays, a world-leading recruitment expert, previously released the "2022 Hays Greater China Salary Guide Technology Industry Supplement", which pointed out that the technology industry in Mainland China and Hong Kong is facing a new round of transformation and development. The demand for talents in numerous sub-sectors will further increase.

 

"The Greater Bay Area organically combines the advantages of the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau. Talents in the technology industry will face more opportunities in this region," says Jessica Wang, executive director of Hays China, "Hays continues to be optimistic about the Greater Bay Area’s long-term development. We have established our layout in the Greater Bay Area very early, with offices in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, providing differentiated services for employers and candidates according to industry characteristics.”

 

In May 2022, the "China Urban Agglomeration Integration Report" released by the China Development Research Foundation believes that the economic aggregate of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is expected to reach RMB 14.76 trillion in 2022, surpassing the Tokyo Bay Area to become the bay area with the most economic aggregate in the world. 

 

The development trend of the GBA driven by technological innovation has attracted talents from different fields to settle in the GBA, and the talent agglomeration effect that the high-tech industrial clusters bring has further promoted the sustainable development of the GBA.

 

 

The "14th Five-Year Plan for Scientific and Technological Innovation in Guangdong Province" proposes to further promote the development of the "Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao" science and technology innovation corridor with the goal to build the GBA into a global science and technology innovation centre. 

 

The plan urged to deepen the collaborative innovation of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao in the fields of industrial development, technical research, entrepreneurial incubation, technology finance, and achievement transformation, and promoting a better level of innovative “integrated” development in all three regions.

 

Such goals require strong talent acquisition strategy. The GBA hence pointed out the necessity to focusing on the needs of innovative talents in key areas, implementing a more open talent policy, and creating an internationally competitive talent development environment. The plan also calls for innovating a new model of attracting talents, which will allow employees to work for Hong Kong and Macao platforms in Mainland China, promoting the two-way flow of innovative technology talents from the Mainland to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, actively building a cooperation centre for international technology and talent communication, and further applying the model of “miniaturization, regionalization and specialization” when attracting overseas talents to Guangdong for innovative entrepreneurship, exchange and cooperation. 

 

"Talent is the foundation of technological innovation and the internal driving force for the integrated development of the regional economy. A series of policies and measures in talent planning in the Greater Bay Area has undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for the gathering of various talents," says Jessica Wang. "From our experience, the demand for talents in the fields of internet, robotics, autonomous driving, medical technology, semiconductor, new energy, intelligent manufacturing, automobiles and other technological segments remains high in the Greater Bay Area.”

 

Hays believes that the technology industry in the Greater Bay Area has clear regional divisions. For example, Shenzhen places more emphasis on front-end talents for research and development, while Guangzhou and surrounding cities have a greater demand for back-end talents related to mass-production. The division correlates with the differentiated leading industries between different cities and regions in the Greater Bay Area.

 

For example, the new energy vehicle industry is a key development sector in Guangzhou, and there are enterprises in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the industrial chain spreading across Guangzhou and surrounding cities. Thus, there is a high demand for talents related to mass production. In comparison, Shenzhen pays more attention to the recruitment of related talents in the fields of software and hardware development, algorithms, new materials, and data. 

 

"The industrial structure determines the demand for talents," Jessica Wang says, "such a division also reflects the advantages of the coordinated development of the Greater Bay Area. From research and development, manufacturing to the financial market, the Greater Bay Area has a refined structure covering the entire industry chain.”

 

In addition, Hays found that the digital transformation of enterprises has also created two new types of talent needs. On the one hand, there are data-related business analysis (BI) positions, such as data engineers and data analysts. On the other hand, there are information technology (IT) related positions. There is a high demand for jobs detailing the implementation of specific IT systems, such as IP patent applications, ERP management, MES engineers, etc.

High salaries and high subsidies attract talents to the Greater Bay Area

 

Competitive salary and subsidies for talent attraction are among key factors to create human capital agglomeration on top of industry concentration and well-rounded supply chain. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics in July 2022, the average annual salary of employees in urban non-private sectors in Guangdong Province in 2021 ranks second among all provinces, at RMB 118,133. The same figure for private sector employees in Guangdong ranks first amongst all provinces at RMB 73,231. The industry with the highest average annual salary amongst private sectors is the information transmission, software, and IT service industry, at RMB 140,251, nearly twice the average annual salary in the private sector.

 

In terms of regional differences, the Hays figures show that, in general, the salary level in Hong Kong is about 30% to 40% higher than that of the mainland in the technology industry, while the salary in Shenzhen is about 20% higher than that in Guangzhou.

 

"Currently, there is a shortage of IT talents in the Hong Kong market, so companies are willing to pay high salaries to attract talents from the mainland to Hong Kong. This phenomenon is especially noticeable in financial technology,” Jessica Wang says, "In the IT or new energy, a senior hardware engineer can get an annual salary of RMB 200,000 to 300,000 in Guangzhou. In Dongguan, if the candidate has about three years of work experience, some enterprises are also willing to offer an annual salary of RMB 300,000 to 400,000. Due to the higher cost of living and housing prices in Shenzhen than that of other areas, candidates will expect to receive an annual salary of around RMB 400,000.”

 

To attract more high-end talents, many cities in the Greater Bay Area have implemented competitive talent subsidy policies. For example, for some high-tech enterprises in Dongguan, the government will give subsidies of RMB 2 to 3 million for candidates with PhD degrees or special contributions in the field to work and settle in Dongguan; Zhuhai provides corresponding tax subsidies for talents from Macao; Foshan also established a high-tech incubation centre designed specifically for the fields of life sciences and medical devices, welcoming pre-A and B-round companies to build factories, and giving them corresponding policy subsidies which will naturally encourage companies to offer more competitive salaries when recruiting talents.

 

 

With the continuous development of industries in the GBA, new policies such as office leasing subsidies for industrial agglomeration and support for talent development have also brought new bonuses to the development of the Area. This, in turn, has formed an obvious human capital agglomeration effect. 

 

According to official data, as of July 2022, the total number of professional technical and skilled personnel in Guangdong Province has reached more than 21 million – among them with 1.1 million researchers – ranking amongst the top of the country. Helping Guangdong stay number one ranking nationally in the number of high-tech enterprises and the number of patents. Guangdong’s regional innovation capability had also ranked first in China for four consecutive years. 

 

"In addition to policy subsidies that attract a large number of talents, the convenient transportation and connectivity in the Greater Bay Area is also an aspect that encourages talent flow." Jessica Wang points out. "For example, candidates live in new first-tier cities like Foshan, which are relatively developed with low costs for living and housing. Meanwhile, they could enjoy the entertainment or culture of first-tier cities such as Shenzhen or Guangzhou.”

 

"The emphasis on technology in the Greater Bay Area will also affect candidates from other regions who choose to work in the GBA. For example, there are many port cities in the GBA which brings a lot of convenience to manufacturing and the supply chain for different types of enterprises, thus attracting more enterprises and talents to settle in,” Jessica Wang says.

The human capital agglomeration effect has brought more possibilities and opportunities to the technology industry in the GBA. For employers and candidates in related industries, Hays proposed following professional recruitment advice.

 

"When recruiting, the company pays more attention to the three aspects of the candidate, which are experience, language and innovation. The experience in projects, especially those “zero to one” projects, or having developed a new product will greatly enhance the candidate’s competitiveness. In addition, in the Greater Bay Area, being multilingual is vital. Many foreign new products or companies plan to establish research and development centres in the Area, and candidates' English ability and communication skills are particularly important,” Jessica Wang said.

 

Hays believes that now is a good time for employers to actively recruit talents. The market is now with sufficient available candidates, and the competition for talent is relatively less intense. Thus, employers may acquire suitable candidates to prepare for key projects in the future. "Because when the next wave of recruitment peaks comes, some companies will not only have a shortage in their talent pool but will also face greater recruitment pressure. They need to compete with better and larger companies for talent, which will easily put them in a passive situation,” says Jessica Wang.

 

For candidates, Hays suggests that when encountering industry turbulence and market instability, they should maintain a positive, while review and reflect on their own technical reserves in a timely manner, think about questions such as what they want to do in the future and which emerging fields, they can set foot in. It is necessary to break out of the constraints of their past work experience or technical field. 

 

"The domestic economic is adjusting. Innovative technologies such as robotics, intelligent manufacturing, metaverse, VR, 5G and 6G are full of opportunities,” Jessica Wang says.

In terms of salary, Hays comments that it depends on the trend of the industry. For example, algorithms and big data are usually with high salaries but in the meantime the industry is highly competitive, while candidates in general internet companies could face challenges in salary due to policy impact. In addition, candidates in industries such as communications, new energy and robotics may see higher salaries in the coming years.

 

Jessica Wang says that with the supporting policies and growing demand, the technology industry in the GBA has unlimited opportunities. “We will continue to see the rapid development of technology companies in the Greater Bay Area. As talents gather and the cities continue to complement each other, the Greater Bay Area will see stronger performance in their development and innovation.”