(ECNS) -- Graduates in economics and finance still have great prospects for making big money, the National Business Daily reported on Sunday, citing a new survey.
The average monthly salary for graduates from five major Chinese universities in finance and economics stayed above 10,000 yuan ($1,502), with nearly 40 percent hoping they could earn at least 8,000 yuan a month before tax, according to iPIN, a Chinese artificial intelligence company.
With an average monthly salary of 14,823 yuan five years after graduation, graduates from Tsinghua University topped the salary rankings of 2,553 Chinese colleges and universities.
While graduates from 39 colleges made the 10,000-yuan list, 185 colleges saw their graduates' average monthly salary top 8,000 yuan, while graduates from 789 colleges made more than 6,000 yuan a month on average.
Fudan University and Peking University, two prestigious comprehensive universities in China, were ranked fourth and sixth on the salary ranking, while the remaining of the top 20 were dominated by finance/economics and science/technology schools.
An industry insider said the survey indicated that China was in the process of an industrial upgrade and a high value-added service sector was on the rise. This is leading to a thriving Internet industry, which needs science and technology professionals, and a booming finance industry, which requires finance and economics professionals.
Data from iPIN also showed that the average salary for the top 100 colleges on the rankings increased by 1,818 yuan over last year, up 22.8 percent.
Data from 51job.com also showed increased salary expectations from fresh graduates. All finance and economics graduates wanted a salary higher than 2,000 yuan this year, among which 35 percent expected 6,000 yuan or above, 25 percent expected 8,000 yuan or above, 7 percent expected 10,000 yuan or above and 4 percent expected 12,000 yuan or above.
However, an executive at a financial institution based in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, warned that competition in the finance industry was also fierce. Graduates were advised to start with entry-level jobs and constantly improve their comprehensive capabilities to stay competitive.
