(Yicai) Oct. 22 -- China’s semiconductor industry continues to face a significant talent shortage, driving up salaries for specialized roles. Yet a growing pool of university graduates and stricter experience requirements are making it harder for entry-level candidates to find suitable jobs, industry insiders told Yicai.

Demand is growing fastest for chip design roles related to artificial intelligence, such as central processing unit, graphics processing unit and neural processing unit positions, a senior headhunter told Yicai.

Other fast-growing areas include memory chips, optical chips and optical communications, all of which are closely linked to computing power, he said. By contrast, demand for semiconductor talent in traditional sectors such as consumer electronics and security systems has remained relatively stable.

The number of new job postings in the chip industry soared 22.2 percent in the first nine months from a year earlier, according to the latest industry data obtained by Yicai from Liepin. The average annual salary offered for these positions jumped 8.8 percent year on year to CNY291,900 (USD43,738).

Demand for talent specializing in Chiplet technology, in particular, has surged. Chiplet is a chip architecture in which multiple smaller chips, known as chiplets, are manufactured separately and then integrated into a single unit through advanced packaging techniques.

The number of newly advertised Chiplet-related positions soared 211.2 percent year on year, and has increased by a cumulative 451.4 percent over the past two years. The average annual salary offered is now more than double the industry average for the chip sector at CNY649,500 (USD97,335). Job openings in advanced packaging also rose sharply, increasing 134.6 percent year on year, with an average annual salary of CNY422,400 (USD63,300).

Shanghai Enflame Technology recently offered an “astronomical” salary of up to CNY1.8 million (USD269,715) a year for a Chiplet D2D AI chip architect position. D2D stands for Die-to-Die, which refers to the interconnection technology that enables individual chiplets to communicate with one another.

Behind the rapid rise in salaries is a very small pool of qualified candidates. Enflame’s “astronomical-salary” position requires applicants to have more than 10 years of experience in chip architecture.

“Across the country, there are probably only about 200 to 300 people who truly meet this requirement, and most of them have already been snapped up by leading companies,” an insider at a listed AI chipmaker told Yicai. “This is because most Chiplet projects in China are still at the early stages of architecture definition or verification, leaving few candidates with the required decade or more of experience.”

Graduate Job Squeeze

The broader trend of firms offering high salaries to attract top-tier talent has done little to improve job prospects for recent graduates from semiconductor-related programs.

A recent doctoral graduate in microelectronics from a well-known university told Yicai that the number of graduates majoring in semiconductor-related fields has surged over the past two years. Companies have responded by raising their requirements for industry experience, making it significantly more difficult for fresh graduates to find jobs.

“Four years ago, graduates from semiconductor-related programs at top universities could secure job offers very quickly. But as firms receive more applications, the advantage of having a prestigious university on one’s resume is diminishing, while employers are imposing increasingly stringent requirements for specialized, directly relevant experience,” the person said.

Building expertise in the semiconductor industry takes a long time. Engineers typically need three to five years of project experience to develop into fully capable professionals, making it difficult for fresh graduates and applicants from other fields to take on core research and development roles in the short term, said Wang Pan, co-founder of Thorsianway Microelectronics Technology.

Among chip industry job postings from January to September, positions requiring three to five years of work experience accounted for 31.86 percent of the total, according to Liepin data. Those requiring five to 10 years of experience accounted for 30.48 percent, making it the fastest-growing experience bracket year on year.

Specialist Talent Shortages

Several industry insiders interviewed by Yicai expect competition for semiconductor jobs to intensify, particularly at the entry level. Meanwhile, companies will continue to compete aggressively for AI chip architects and senior engineers with three to five years of relevant experience.

“Over the next three to five years, the most acute talent shortages will be concentrated in three areas, namely D2D/C2C interconnect protocols and proprietary IP development, high-bandwidth memory interface design and system-level architecture optimization driven by AI workloads,” the insider at the listed AI chipmaker said.

The shortage of professionals skilled in full-stack chip design, 3D stacking and advanced packaging is likely to persist over the long term, he added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor