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Survey: Fund management companies offer highest earning jobs in 2007
By Nie Peng (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-10-20 17:28

Taihe found it was quite normal for a fund manager to earn more than a million yuan (about $146,000) a year. However, there was a big gap even among these managers as well: the highest income was five times the lowest.

Industry wide, salaries climbed with job competitiveness.

Employees with supporting divisions, such as the client service center, as well as new graduates, were right at the bottom of the income pyramid, some of whom earned just a few thousand yuan a month.

Sales and marketing talents were regarded as the most difficult to retain, Taihe found, and therefore they had an edge in getting higher incomes.

Investment research talents, with their expertise in a core division, held most of the highest earning positions.

Currently, there are 60 fund management companies in China, and the major differences in their asset scales and shareholder compositions have resulted in large income gaps among employees, the newspaper said.

"ChinaAMC, Harvest, China Southern, Bosera and E Fund offered the highest salaries," said an insider with eight years of fund management experience.

Companies in the financial sector generously rewarded their employees in 2007.

Statistics from the Shanghai Qihui Talent Consulting Company showed a 20 to 40 percent year-on-year rise in fixed income was very common, and the increase in flexible income was even more obvious. Many employees holding positions that were highly relevant to the financial market and the market value of stocks were given a 100 to 260 percent hike on their flexible income.

Taihe's survey also showed on the whole, joint venture fund companies provided higher salaries than domestic ones. Domestic firms offered higher awards on sales and special contribution by employees, but their benefit packages were less attractive than joint venture firms.

"JV firms take a different approach in paying salaries," said an employee who hopped from a joint venture company to a domestic company earlier this year. "They offer better benefit packages."

However, job security didn't come with the high incomes. According to the newspaper, since the beginning of this year 11 of the 60 general managers have been replaced, a record high replacement rate in China.

"I receive phone calls from headhunters almost every day," an entry-level employee with a fund management firm claimed. "It would be very easy for me to hop to another company."


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