First, enterprise recruitment salary: chip engineers dominate the list again
Recently, Zhaopin.com released the "China Enterprise Recruitment Salary Report" for the second quarter of 2023, which showed that the national average recruitment salary in the second quarter was 10,266 yuan / month, compared with 10,101 yuan / month in the first quarter, an increase of 1.6% from the previous quarter. Compared to the same period last year, hiring compensation decreased by 0.7%.
From a regional perspective, among the 38 core cities in the country, Shanghai's salary still ranks first, reaching 13,486 yuan / month. Beijing followed with 13,438 yuan/month, while Shenzhen and Hangzhou ranked third and fourth with 12,774 yuan/month and 11,796 yuan/month, respectively. It is worth mentioning that the average recruitment salary in Nanjing is 11,061 yuan/month, surpassing Suzhou and Guangzhou and entering the top five.
In terms of industry, the salary of the fund/securities/futures/investment industry in the second quarter was still the highest, reaching 13,737 yuan/month. The electronic technology/semiconductor/integrated circuit industry ranked second, and its recruitment salary was 12175 yuan/month. From the year-on-year growth rate of industry recruitment salaries, the salary of the electronic technology/semiconductor/integrated circuit industry increased by 5.9% year-on-year, the highest growth rate. From a career point of view, chip engineers have the highest salary, reaching 26,012 yuan / month. This is followed by senior managers. The recruitment salary of artificial intelligence engineers also exceeded 20,000 yuan, ranking third.
Second, the key factor of the high salary of chip engineers
In the first quarter of 2023, chip engineers topped the list with a high-paying career of 25,599 yuan. In the second quarter, the average salary of chip engineers rose again, up 1.6% year-on-year. This also makes chip engineers the only position with an average salary of more than 26,000.
In chip engineers, artificial intelligence engineers and senior management positions, in addition to the high salary levels that senior management positions have always had, the high salary levels of chip engineers and artificial intelligence engineers are related to the growth of the industry and the lack of talent supply in recent years. With the rapid development of science and technology and the wide application of artificial intelligence applications, the demand for chip engineers and artificial intelligence engineers is growing, resulting in relatively high salary levels for these positions. At the same time, due to the high demand for professional skills and knowledge in related fields, the lack of supply has also driven up the salary level of these positions.
1. Industry growth boosts salary increases
According to the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI), the global semiconductor market exceeded expectations in 2021, reaching $555.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 26.2%, a record high. According to WSTS, the growth of the global semiconductor market is expected to slow down to 3.3% in 2022, with a total size of $573.5 billion. Despite the slowdown in growth, the semiconductor market continues to develop, especially in China. From the perspective of regional structure, China will remain the world's largest single semiconductor market in 2022.
Statistics from the China Semiconductor Industry Association show that the sales of China's integrated circuit industry in 2022 will reach 1.20061 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%, a record high. Among them, the sales of the design industry were 515.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.1%; The sales volume of the manufacturing industry was 385.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.4%; The sales of packaging and testing industry were 299.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%. It can be seen that in the field of integrated circuit applications, the market demand continues to grow, orders are increasing, and the scale of product shipments is also growing.
In addition, according to customs statistics, the total amount of China's integrated circuit imports in 2022 was US$415.579 billion, which still exceeded the amount of crude oil imports in the same period and continued to be China's largest imported commodity. As an important production base of global electronic information products, China's external demand is still huge. With the increase in market demand for downstream applications and the acceleration of the localization process of the semiconductor industry, the domestic integrated circuit industry urgently needs to expand. This also means that the shortage of talent supply in related industries will become increasingly prominent, thereby promoting the increase of salary levels in the industry.
2. The lack of talents intensifies salary competition
In addition, the lack of talent is also a major reason. According to the forecast of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, the shortage of chip professionals in China will exceed 250,000 in 2022, and this gap will expand to 300,000 by 2025. It is expected that in 2023, the demand for talent in the entire industry will reach 766,500. By 2024, the demand for chip talent in Chinese mainland will reach 789,000. However, as of 2021, the total number of employees in the whole industry is only about 570,700, and the talent reserve obviously lags behind the demand of the industry.
According to the "China Integrated Circuit Industry Talent Development Report (2020-2021 Edition)", in 2020, the scale of graduates of integrated circuit-related majors in mainland China is about 210,000, of which only 13.77% choose to enter the integrated circuit industry for employment. Overall, there is still a serious brain drain in the integrated circuit profession. This is related to the barriers that exist in the integrated circuit industry itself. Compared with other industries, the rapid update of knowledge in the field of integrated circuits, high requirements, and high work pressure have aggravated the brain drain. In order to attract talents, increasing the salary level has become one of the important means for enterprises to attract talents.
3. Chip engineer position and professional introduction
From the perspective of the industry chain, the chip industry can be divided into different fields such as design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, and auxiliary fields (such as EDA, equipment and materials). The chip engineer is responsible for the whole process design and development of the entire chip project from the front end to the back end. It covers algorithm design, coding, simulation, synthesis, DFT (Design for Testability and STA (Static Timing Analysis) to achieve the functional and performance requirements of the chip. Chip engineers play a vital role in the entire chip design process. The main ones are:
Chip design engineer: responsible for designing the circuit and structure of the chip, including logic design, circuit design and layout. They use computer-aided design tools (CAD) to complete the design work and ensure that the design meets specifications and performance requirements.
Physical Design Engineer: Responsible for translating the logical design into an actual physical layout. They consider aspects such as circuit layout, wiring, power consumption, and heat dissipation to ensure the performance and manufacturability of the chip.
Verification Engineer: Responsible for verifying the correctness and functionality of the chip design. They use simulation and verification tools to verify that the design meets the expected functional requirements, and to troubleshoot and debug.
Packaging and test engineer: responsible for the packaging and testing of chips. They select the appropriate package type, design the package layout, and ensure good connection and heat dissipation of the package. Test engineers use automated test equipment to test chips for functionality and reliability.
System Engineer: Responsible for integrating the chip with the entire system. They work with other hardware and software engineers to ensure that the chip works with other components in the system and meets system-level requirements.
In addition, there are many chip engineers in professional fields, such as power management engineers, clock design engineers, analog circuit design engineers, RF engineers, etc. They have expertise and skills in specific chip design areas to solve domain-specific design challenges. It is important to note that the responsibilities of a chip engineer may overlap, and the specific roles and responsibilities depend on the company, project, and team structure. And with the continuous development and innovation of technology, the work content of chip engineers will continue to change and evolve.
In the recruitment of chip industry, the majors related to chip engineering include integrated circuits, microelectronics, electronics and other majors, which usually cover knowledge and skills in digital design, verification, etc. In addition, graduates of physics, electromagnetics, optics, automation, electrical, communications, computer, software engineering and other majors also have the opportunity to enter the chip industry. These specialized knowledge and skills play an important role in the chip design, development and manufacturing process. In addition, materials science, chemistry and other majors have certain advantages in chip technology, suitable for integrated circuit manufacturing (such as PE, PIE and other positions) or IC packaging and testing research and development and other positions. These expertise and skills play an important role in material selection, process development, and quality control, and play a key role in the performance and reliability of the chip.
Overall, the chip industry is a highly technical and specialized field, and technology needs to be constantly advanced and rapidly developed. Therefore, the demand for chip engineers in enterprises is also very high, usually with a master's degree or above. Since chip design and development is a very complex job, deep technical and professional knowledge is required. Engineers may have to deal with tight project schedules, technical challenges, and high work pressures. This is challenging for practitioners while also providing a wealth of career development opportunities.