70% of overseas returnees not satisfied with their salaries

Nearly 70 percent of Chinese overseas returnees are not satisfied with their current salaries, said a report on Chinese returnees' employment and entrepreneurship in 2017.

The report was jointly released by the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization and zhaopin.com at a press conference in Beijing on Saturday. Based on interviews with 1,821 returnees, the report focuses on three key aspects - their basic conditions, employment and entrepreneurship.  

A total of 432,500 students came back to China after graduating from overseas universities in 2016, the report said, adding that by the end 2016, China has a total of 2.65 million returnees.

The report revealed that more than 14 percent of these returnees are from Beijing, ranking top in terms of the returnees' birthplace, followed by Shanghai with almost six percent. 

In terms of employment after coming back to China, the report said the biggest advantages of returnees are their global vision, language ability and cross-culture communication, while the disadvantages include lack of familiarity with domestic employment trends and requirements, and inability to join campus recruitment.

More than 90 percent of the returnees could find jobs within half a year after they come back to China, but 68.9 percent said their current monthly salary was lower than expected, according to the report. More than 40 percent of the returnees have after-tax salaries of no more than 6,000 yuan ($900) per month.

In terms of entrepreneurship, most returnee entrepreneurs are engaged in the IT industry, and Beijing ranks top among the cities where returnees choose to develop their businesses. 

The proportion of entrepreneurs among total returnees is not mentioned in the report. 

The number of domestic university graduates in 2017 is estimated to reach a total of 7.95 million, an increase of 300,000 over last year. 

The report noted that China has attracted more students back to the country with its rapid economic growth and the rise in the number of returnees will bring more pressure on employment, which should be noted by the government.