Shanghai university students who graduated this year have an average monthly salary of 2,899 yuan (US$424) from their first job, ranking the highest among six major cities in the country.

The average salary in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, is 2,816 yuan, and it is 2,699 yuan in Beijing.

The average Shanghai salary rose 10 percent compared from last year, according to figures released by zhaopin.com on Monday.

The salary report by zhaopin.com, a popular job hunter Website, is based on job information collected from 843 enterprises in the first half of the year.

The Website report indicated the growth rate of university graduate salaries in Shanghai ranks second in China, just 1 percentage point behind Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province.

Four other cities, including Guangzhou and Beijing, also experienced increases in average salaries for university graduates this year, according to the report.

The best-paid graduates are usually those who majored in finance, high technology, manufacturing, real estate or consumer goods.

Finance grads earned an average salary of 2,725 yuan, higher than those of other majors.

Graduates majoring in finance, high tech and the consumer goods industry enjoyed the most rapid salary growth of 9 percent, while those in manufacturing were up 8 percent and real estate 3 percent.

Graduates recruited by private enterprises boasted the highest increase rate of 13 percent but started at 2,106 yuan, 851 yuan less than those who worked in foreign firms.

Graduates who work for wholly foreign-owned enterprises have the highest starting salary of 2,957 yuan, with a growth rate of 10 percent.

The report also said graduates working in marketing or product-related areas experienced about 10-percent increase this year, but graduates in human resources and information and technology have taken a cut of 1 percent.

(Shanghai Daily September 9, 2008)