What 2019 Salary and Job Trends Reveal About China’s 90‑Post‑2000s Programmers

Report Overview

The 2019 "90‑Post‑2000s Programmer Workplace Report" analyzes the current job market for programmers born after 1990 in China, based on data from the Lagou platform.

Key Findings

Workforce Composition : 90‑post‑2000s programmers now account for 82% of the Chinese internet tech workforce, while the 70s generation has largely exited.

Salary : The average monthly salary for these programmers is close to 20 K RMB, the highest among all internet roles. Senior positions (5‑10 years) see median salaries rise from 25 K to 27 K.

Top Companies : ByteDance leads in resume submissions, followed by Tencent and Alibaba. Companies such as Meituan, Xiaomi, SenseTime, NetEase, Baidu, Kuaishou, Ant Financial and Didi also have high demand for backend, mobile front‑end and data roles.

Geographic Distribution : Major hiring cities are Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hangzhou. Beijing has the highest proportion of salaries above 20 K (64%), Shanghai follows at 50%, and Hangzhou surpasses both with 42%.

Employment Pressure : Contrary to expectations, first‑tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen) show lower employment pressure, while Nanjing, Chengdu and Wuhan rank as the most challenging for 90‑post‑2000s programmers.

Company Size : Approximately 60% of these programmers work in companies with fewer than 500 employees; only 21% are employed by firms with over 2 000 staff.

Gender Balance : Women make up 17% of the programmer pool, meaning roughly one in six programmers is female.

Technology Demand : Java and C#/.NET positions face the least competition (average 4 candidates per role), while JavaScript/HTML5 roles are highly competitive (average 28.8 candidates per role). Overall, Java, JavaScript, C#, Delphi, C/C++ and PHP are the most sought‑after languages.

Data Visualizations

The report aims to provide clear guidance for job seekers as the “golden recruitment season” approaches, helping them navigate salary expectations, preferred cities, and target companies.