"Starting Salary of 14 Million Won"… Surge in China-Related Jobs Amid AI Boom

AI Job Openings Surge in China During Recruitment Season
Half of Alibaba's Spring Internships Are AI-Related

A panoramic view of Qianjiang New City, the new business center of Hangzhou. Hangzhou City

While youth unemployment in China is becoming increasingly severe, competition among companies to secure talent in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is fierce. On the 8th, the Chinese state-run Global Times reported that AI-related job openings have significantly increased during the spring recruitment season.

According to the report, about 830 companies participated in a large-scale offline spring job fair held recently in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, posting 21,000 job openings focused on AI algorithm development and large language model (LLM) research. Half of these were concentrated on AI algorithm development. Leading Chinese robotics company Unitree is currently recruiting for 10 positions, including AI algorithm engineers and robot motion control algorithm engineers, with monthly salaries up to 70,000 yuan (approximately 14 million KRW).

High demand for AI-related jobs was also confirmed at a fair held recently in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. At the fair, state-owned Guangdong Rising Holdings announced plans to hire 2,000 university graduates in the fields of AI and robotics. Electric vehicle manufacturer Xiaopeng also plans to recruit 6,000 people in areas such as autonomous driving and smart cockpit.

Thanks to China’s leading technology companies like DeepSeek, which has caused a global sensation with low-cost, high-efficiency AI models, related companies are offering jobs in the AI sector. At the end of February, Alibaba announced it would hire about 2,000 interns, with roughly half of the positions related to AI. More than 80% of Alibaba Cloud’s job openings are also AI-related.

CCTV reported that job fairs held in other major cities such as Shenzhen, in addition to Hangzhou and Guangzhou, also focused on AI-related jobs. CCTV also cited an executive from an online recruitment platform, stating that demand for AI-related positions increased by 13% this year, and that algorithm engineers, even with minimal experience, receive starting monthly salaries of 35,000 yuan (approximately 7 million KRW).