Report: Talent flocking to 'new first-tier cities'

"New first-tier cities" like Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Chengdu in Sichuan province and Nanjing in Jiangsu province have become popular destinations for talent in the past three years, a new report said.

Growing talent concentration, strong preferential support, prospective development opportunities and growing income contributed to the competitiveness of such emerging destinations and helped attract both career starters and senior professionals, according to the report released by US-based professional networking site LinkedIn and global human resources service provider Aon Hewitt on Tuesday.

The total number of new employees has on average rose by nearly 34 percent between 2016 and 2018 from the level in 2015. The numbers were nearly 14 percent and nearly 12 percent for Chengdu and Nanjing respectively, according to the report based on LinkedIn user data. The figures represent a strong growth, when compared with the national average of nearly 5 percent during the same period.