Tourists take in the sights at the Bund area of Shanghai. [Photo by Wang Gang/For China Daily]

Shanghai's demand for mid-to-high-end talent ranked first among cities in China in the first half of the year, according to a recent report released by Liepin, China's leading job recruitment site.

According to the report, the city's demand for mid-to-high-end talent accounted for 11.96 percent of the country's total, followed by Beijing and Shenzhen. In addition, the city also ranked first in terms of the number of active mid-to-high-end talent in H1 in China, accounting for 14.32 percent of the total.

"Shanghai is attracting more and more high-end talent," said Yang Xin, director of the population development and social policy research office of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Yang added that the increase in talent is a result of the new industrial development trends in Shanghai as well as the city's efforts to improve talent policy and social governance.

Shanghai's internet industry becomes new attraction for talent

In the past, finance and the related service industry was considered the most popular industry in Shanghai. That has now changed.

A research by a team led by Yaokai, director of the global science and innovation talent development research center of Fudan University, showed that the three most popular positions in Shanghai have shifted from finance-related to internet-related last year.

"Especially since the outbreak, the internet industry has consistently ranked first in terms of demand for mid-to-high-end talent in Shanghai, followed by the financial industry and machinery manufacturing industry," Yao said.

"Led by Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili, internet companies in Shanghai are starting a new wave of talent competition. This is an important reason why Shanghai's new demand for mid-to-high-end talent this year ranks first in the country," Yao said.

The appeal of Shanghai internet companies cannot be separated from the city's thriving internet industry.

Statistics from the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Statistics showed that the added value of the information transmission, software and information technology service industries increased by 13.5 percent in H1 over the same period last year, while the added value of the financial industry increased by 7.4 percent.

Compared with financial companies, most internet companies have greater demand for employment and require more talent in different fields.

The current development of Shanghai's internet industry has also benefited from the formation of a mid-to-high-end talent pool in the past few years.

Research data from Yao's team showed that the internet industry has now become the industry with the most mid-to-high-end talent in Shanghai, accounting for 20.77 percent, ranking first among all industries in the city.

Yao said that with the rising need for a contactless economy amid the epidemic, coupled with Shanghai's more open and inclusive talent policies, the internet industry will become a "reservoir" of mid-to-high-end talent in Shanghai.