DXY Talent Releases '2023 Medical Autumn Recruitment Report': Salary Remains Top Factor Influencing Job Choices; Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen Continue to Lead as Most Preferred Cities for Medical Professionals

As the DXY Talent Autumn Recruitment Festival recently drew to a close, DXY・DXY Talent released the “2023 Healthcare Autumn Recruitment Report” to gain deeper insights into job-seeking preferences and provide valuable references for the healthy development of human resources in the healthcare sector. The report analyzes data from over 1,000 survey responses, more than 80,000 job postings, and application records from over 300,000 users, offering an in-depth examination of recruitment demands and job-seeking trends in the healthcare industry.

The Autumn Recruitment Report provides an in-depth analysis of multiple dimensions within the healthcare industry, including application volumes, salary levels, talent demand, city preferences, popular departments, and interview skills. The report indicates that recruitment demand in the healthcare sector continued to grow in autumn 2023. Applications to private hospitals surged by 32.6% year-on-year, while the proportion of applications to secondary hospitals and primary care institutions gradually increased. Significant salary disparities exist across departments; Dermatology and Venereology emerged as the highest-paying specialty, surpassing others, while Orthopedics and Anesthesiology became the most sought-after fields among job seekers. The “war for talent” among cities persists, with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen continuing to lead as the most popular destinations for healthcare professionals. Insufficient job-seeking skills remain a major challenge, making the enhancement of employability skills a critical factor for success.

Salary remains the primary factor influencing job-seeking decisions. The report shows that over 37% of respondents consider compensation the most important criterion when seeking employment, followed by industry development prospects, work location, and job stability. This indicates that compensation continues to be the dominant driver in directing the flow of healthcare talent, with high-paying positions attracting greater interest from job seekers.

Given the significant importance of compensation, what salary level constitutes the ideal scenario in the minds of job seekers? Data shows that 40.77% of job seekers most desire an annual salary range of RMB 100,000–150,000, while 45% expect an annual salary exceeding RMB 150,000. Among those expecting an annual salary of RMB 200,000 or more, 54% hold a master’s degree, and 58% possess a Standardized Residency Training Certificate or are currently undergoing standardized residency training. In contrast, among those expecting an annual salary below RMB 100,000, 54% have an associate degree. Educational background remains a critical factor influencing salary levels, and holding the “Four Certificates in One” may also serve as leverage in salary negotiations.

In terms of departmental salary distribution, unlike in 2022 when Rheumatology and Immunology and Oncology topped the salary rankings, Dermatology and Venereology, Tuberculosis, and Plastic Surgery surged into the top three departments by average salary in 2023, with the Tuberculosis department showing the fastest rise in salary ranking.

During this year’s autumn recruitment season, job applications to private hospitals grew at a faster pace compared with public hospitals. In terms of application volume, submissions to private hospitals increased by 32.6% year on year. Notably, the proportion of applicants with associate’s and bachelor’s degrees applying to private hospitals rose significantly; the share of bachelor’s degree holders applying to private hospitals climbed from 30% in 2022 to 34%.

In terms of the distribution of job applications across hospitals of different tiers, the proportion of applications to tertiary hospitals has declined to varying degrees this year. In contrast, the proportion of applications from individuals with bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees to secondary hospitals has increased by varying margins. Specifically, the share of applications to secondary hospitals among master’s degree holders rose from 14% in 2022 to 15.6%, while that among doctoral degree holders increased from 9.7% to 11.2%. The proportion of applicants with bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees applying to primary-level and other grassroots medical institutions also saw a slight increase this year, indicating a significant trend of healthcare talent resources shifting toward lower-tier institutions.

The increase in recruitment at secondary-level and primary care hospitals has been driven by supportive policies. In March this year, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the “Opinions on Further Improving the Healthcare Service System,” emphasizing that hospitals at all levels should place a high priority on building their workforce. Various provinces and municipalities have also introduced corresponding policies. Recently, Shaanxi Province implemented the “Healthcare Talent Development Initiative” and a three-year action plan to strengthen the workforce in primary healthcare institutions, aiming to expand and decentralize high-quality medical resources, ensure their balanced distribution, and grow the primary healthcare workforce.

By department, orthopedics and anesthesiology are the most sought-after specialties for job seekers in the healthcare industry, ranking first; rehabilitation medicine and gastroenterology rank second, while pulmonology is the lowest-ranked specialty this year.

As urbanization advances, first- and second-tier cities have witnessed a rapid surge in demand for various types of talent, prompting them to roll out policies to join the “war for talent.” Consequently, the choice of work city has become an increasingly important factor for young job seekers.

Report data shows that compared to the same period in 2022, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen remain the most popular cities for healthcare industry talent. In recent years, first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have introduced various welfare policies to attract higher-level talent. In November 2023, Shenzhen implemented a new round of talent policies, focusing on five aspects: talent introduction, cultivation, development, utilization, and services, highlighting a distinct approach to talent recruitment that is “not limited by region, background, ownership, or convention, and spares no effort.” In addition to policy support, first-tier cities also have significant advantages in attracting talent through competitive salaries and employee benefits.

In the ranking of the most popular cities for job seekers, Wuhan successfully broke into the top five, while Dongguan entered the top ten and demonstrated the fastest upward trend, a development closely tied to its local talent policies. In 2022, the Dongguan Municipal Health Commission issued the Interim Measures for the Management of Programs to Introduce and Cultivate High-Level Health Talent in Dongguan City, which stipulates that over the next three years, Dongguan will annually select two programs for introducing and cultivating high-level medical specialty teams, ten programs for introducing and cultivating “Dongguan Famous Physicians,” twenty programs for introducing and cultivating medical leading talents, and fifty programs for introducing and cultivating outstanding young medical talents, with respective subsidies of RMB 5 million, RMB 800,000, RMB 500,000, and RMB 150,000 per program.

In addition to factors such as the number of job openings, salary levels, and talent policies, survey data from Dingxiang Talent and platform analytics reveal that insufficient interview experience and a lack of access to recruitment information channels are the most significant challenges faced by many job seekers. Specifically, 56.9% of respondents indicated that insufficient interview experience was the primary factor affecting their success rate in securing employment, while 40.58% reported that the absence of accessible channels for obtaining recruitment information posed a major obstacle in their job search.

The General Office of the Ministry of Education issued a notice clarifying that universities and enterprises across all regions should focus on the key priorities and challenges in current employment promotion efforts, precisely expand job opportunities, optimize guidance services, and deeply implement initiatives to empower and enhance vocational education and industry-education integration, striving to improve the employability skills of young people, including recent college graduates.

As a professional human resources service platform for the healthcare industry under DXY, DXY Talent actively responds to government calls by providing high-quality services to both employers and job seekers in medical recruitment. Since July this year, DXY Talent has launched the 2023 Autumn Recruitment Festival, collaborating with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Education to host more than 50 specialized healthcare recruitment fairs. Over 3,000 healthcare institutions participated, cumulatively posting 20,000 entry-level positions for recent graduates, thereby offering employment opportunities to approximately 500,000 new graduates.

To help college students prepare for job hunting and achieve higher-quality, more full employment, DXY Talent visited over 180 medical universities across China during the Autumn Recruitment Festival. It launched a series of mock job-hunting activities for medical students, including more than 30 campus recruitment talks and career planning events, guiding them to set scientific career development goals, systematically cultivate their employability, and enhance their core competitiveness in the job market. Meanwhile, DXY Talent released a series of short videos on its own media platforms, covering job-hunting skills guidance, job recommendations, and “immersive” hospital tours, to disseminate industry trends and popularize professional knowledge to job seekers in the healthcare sector. To date, the total online reach of the Autumn Recruitment video series has exceeded 10 million views.

With the rapid development of the healthcare industry and shifts in talent structure, job-seeking and recruitment methods are increasingly trending toward mobile, big data-driven, and tool-based approaches. The report shows that the number of candidates applying through online channels is more than three times that of those applying offline, while watching live streams to find jobs has emerged as a novel job-seeking method.

Data from the DXY Talent Platform shows that 4 out of every 10 users watch job-seeking live streams. Among these viewers, 12% hold senior professional titles (associate senior level or above), and 28% have a master’s degree or higher. This indicates that live streaming is not merely a novelty for young job seekers; rather, using live streams to find employment is emerging as a new trend in job hunting.

Amid this trend, an increasing number of hospitals are opting for online live streaming to attract more job seekers. On DXY Talent, live streaming channels such as “Prestigious Hospital Live,” “Career Gas Station,” and “Live Job Postings” have been launched to share job openings and career planning insights with a broad audience of job seekers. To date, nearly 300 live sessions have been conducted, accumulating over 600,000 views.