Highest, lowest earning jobs revealed in NBS data

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published data showing the average salaries in China for various jobs on Tuesday, the Beijing News reports.

The data shows that a position as department-head has the highest average salary in the country as much as 2.7 times that of service workers, which have the lowest average salaries nationwide.

NBS figures also revealed that a job in finance carried the highest average annual income in 2013, with financial sector employees earning an average of 99,659 yuan (about 16,000 US dollars) per year. This is four times the average annual salary earned by those working in the agricultural sector, who earn an average yearly wage of about 25,820 yuan (about 4,133 US dollars) -- the lowest in the country.

Su Hainan, deputy director of the China Association for Labour Studies, says new NBS figures show an income gap in different positions and industries to drum up support for establishing a rational income distribution system and regulatory policies.

Following jobs in the financial sector, employees in China's software and IT sectors and those working in scientific and technical fields made the list, with those jobs earning a yearly salary of 90,926 yuan (14,557 US dollars) and 76,603 yuan (12,264 US dollars), respectively.