China is facing a huge demand for talent in cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, in this hiring season, as the country is pursuing to develop new quality productive forces.

At a recent job fair held in the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Jiangsu Province, hundreds of companies were eagerly seeking after skilled individuals in AI and related fields.

"The traditional manufacturing industry in our country will definitely move towards Informationization and internet-based smart development. So, I prefer looking at areas of artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, big data, as well as Informationization,"said Peng Shaohui, a graduate from the university's School of Mechanical Engineering.

"We held a university-wide job fair, focusing on posts relating to new quality productive forces. We set up dedicated sections for the national defense and military industry, intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence, new energy, and new materials. A total of 240 hiring companies were here," said Zhou Shuangxi, director of the Student Affairs Office of Nanjing University of Science and Technology.
Another job fair in Shanghai attracted nearly 500 companies offering approximately 11,000 job opportunities. While logistics and import-export sectors constituted a portion of the vacancies, about one-third of the positions were created by emerging industries like integrated circuits, biomedicine, intelligent manufacturing, and electronic information.

"There are a growing number of companies in these industries participating in the job fairs, and the number and variety of job positions offered by these companies are increasing year by year," said Zhang Feng, deputy director of the occupation introduction department of the Employment Promotion Center of the Pudong New Area, Shanghai.
Despite the high demand for AI and big data talent, job seekers interested in front-end development face the fiercest competition, as data from Zhaopin.com, a Chinese online recruitment services provider revealed.

"For companies like us in the new generation of information technology, technology updates are iterating rapidly. Thus, there is a high demand for algorithm engineers. This year, we plan to recruit more than 500 people nationwide, which is more than 10 times the recruitment of last year," said Chu Yibing, chairman of StorLead.

According to the Ministry of Education, it is projected that the number of university graduates in China will reach 11.79 million in 2024, representing an increase of 210,000 compared with the previous year.