"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.

The report said that one out of every 15 returnees from abroad opted to work in the 15 "new first-tier cities", including Wuhan, Suzhou, Xi'an, Shenyang, Ningbo, Dongguan and Wuxi in 2018, with 22 percent of the people who already relocated to such cities last year holding managerial positions or above.

Meanwhile, the number of talents heading for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, commonly recognized as China's first-tier cities, decreased by 17 percent in 2018 on a yearly basis.

In addition to local governments' preferential policies to attract talent, including easier access to get a permanent residence in the city and discounts in housing prices, the integrated competitiveness, including lower living costs and better living environment, of such cities contributed to their rising attractiveness, industry observers said.

"Also, specific industries, such as internet for Hangzhou as well as autonomous driving and high-end equipment manufacturing for Nanjing, have developed scale in such cities. The presence of leading industry players in such cities played an important role in establishing a better salary incentive system, which will also help attract professionals," said Wang Huan, head of customer success and solutions at LinkedIn China.

"As the country's economic development becomes increasingly even and city clusters mature, I believe the attractiveness of such cities will continue to grow in the coming few years," she said.

Jin Xing, who had worked in the Netherlands for a decade, established Zhejiang Autorock, a company specializing in research and development and production of liquid crystal auto panel boards, in Hangzhou in 2014.

He said the widespread scientific research collaboration within the Yangtze River Delta region, deep-rooted entrepreneurship culture and talent reservoir in neighboring Shanghai have all made the startup boom possible in Zhejiang.

Li Ming, deputy director of the Shanghai Human Resources Service Center, said that young graduates' destination choices have become more diverse. "Unlike the past generations, graduates from Shanghai universities no longer look at job opportunities in the municipality only, especially when other cities have their own competitive edge in different fields and salaries for fresh graduates within the delta region do not vary that much," he said.