There's high demand for software research and development (R&D) talent in China's Internet industry, especially highly paid artificial intelligence (AI) positions, according to a study from online recruitment firm Zhaopin.com.

The Internet sector has created a new economic development pattern with information, knowledge and technology serving as the leading factors. This development pattern illustrates the differences in the structure of talent recruitment.

On average, 32 applicants competed for every design and product development position in 2020, while 29 applied for every technology position.

Jobs such as operation and maintenance support and test engineers are also competitive due to the low technical threshold, but the average salaries are lower.

In contrast, because AI is such an important technology for industrial transformation, the insufficient talent supply results in low competition and high salaries —19,010 yuan (US$2,943)/month on average — and the recruitment scale is expected to expand.

In addition, there's strong demand for core positions such as product managers, data engineers and mobile app developers.