Search for skilled workers moves inland (3)

Briand Greer, president of Aerospace Asia-Pacific of Honeywell (China), said the company planned to double the number of engineers at its Shanghai research center from the current 200.

Germany's Bayer Health Care, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, enjoys double-digit annual growth in China, but also has to deal with the challenge of a shortage of talented people, including research and development engineers, sales staff and managers, said Alok Kanti, managing director of Bayer Health Care China.

Service sector

Due to the upgrading of industries, vacancies are increasing in the nation's service sector.

Sales staff, cooks and restaurant workers are among the most sought after employees in the service sector.

Cui Yansong, head chef of a Western-style restaurant in Beijing, said that he had trained more than 30 apprentices over the past two years, but only two had stayed at the restaurant.

"The new cooks want very high salaries, which we cannot afford," Cui said.

The relatively low salaries on offer in the catering industry are the major reason employers are finding it so difficult to fill vacancies.

"Recruitment is a big problem for the industry, but we do not have any solution, unless cooks' incomes could be raised," said Wang Wen, deputy secretary-general of Beijing Western Food Association.