Advanced Manufacturing 2024: The First Year of the Low-altitude Economy, Embodied Intelligence Becomes Popular, and the Localization of High-end Materials Accelerates | Year-end Review of Workplace Dividends ③
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
In 2024, China's advanced manufacturing is making significant progress.
Low-altitude Economy has become a trending topic. After the landing of e-VTOL physical products, air driving has completed the first step from concept to reality. Infrastructure construction is also accelerating, and the guarantee of low-altitude flight is increasingly improving. In addition to air vehicles, the application scenarios of unmanned aerial vehicles are expanding. Aerospace Information Industry is continuously developing. Yu Chengdong of Huawei said: "We hope to realize the integrated communication network of space, air, and ground from 5.5G."
Robotics field continues to exert efforts, and the industry focus is on the parallel development of humanoid robots and embodied robots. The demand for technical talents in the industry is strong, but there are few professional talents in the field, and salaries and benefits are generally high. Large companies have come to increase their layout of embodied intelligence. The participation of manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Huawei, and Changan Automobile has forced the development of traditional robot enterprises and also brought employment opportunities. Enterprises focusing on robot scene application solutions pay more attention to the selection of compound talents, and there is a shortage of professional talents in emerging fields such as medical, service, and agriculture.
In 2024, the investment enthusiasm in the New Materials industry remains undiminished. New materials empower industrial upgrading. Domestic new material technology is in line with the international level, especially in the fields of low-altitude economy and commercial aerospace. The domestic substitution space of high-end new materials is large, and the future market of new materials is broad. Favorable policies and industrial upgrading have promoted the growth of new material demand, and the demand for talents has also increased, especially mechanical design/manufacturing engineers.
Low-altitude Economy: Sub-sectors show a growth trend, and talent demand surges ╱ 01
Robotics: Humanoid robots and embodied intelligence are the focus ╱ 02
New Materials: Industrial investment enthusiasm remains undiminished, and the domestic substitution space of high-end materials is huge ╱ 03
Low-altitude Economy: Sub-sectors show a growth trend, and talent demand surges
2024 is known as the first year of the Low-altitude Economy. In March, the Two Sessions for the first time wrote the Low-altitude Economy into the government work report, and the Low-altitude Economy is gradually becoming a reality from a concept.
Under the background of favorable policies, infrastructure construction is accelerating, and the guarantee of low-altitude flight is becoming more and more complete. On April 18, the first Low-altitude Economy Application Demonstration Island in China, Guangzhou University Town Low-altitude Economy Application Demonstration Island, was released. On June 30, the first set of Low-altitude Airspace Coordination and Operation Service Platform in China - Zhuhai Low-altitude Air Traffic Management Service Platform was launched. On November 18, Chen Zhijie, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, revealed that the National Development and Reform Commission will specially establish the Low-altitude Economy Department to coordinate the development of the Low-altitude Economy.
Among them, Guangdong Province can be called the Whampoa Military Academy for Low-altitude Economy talents. According to Qixin Data, in terms of the number of enterprises and evaluation rankings in the Low-altitude Economy industrial chain, Guangdong Province ranks first.
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
Driven by policies, eVTOL and civilian unmanned aerial vehicles have become development hotspots.
The landing of eVTOL physical products has initiated a revolution in aviation history. The EH216-S aircraft of Ehang Intelligent obtained the Production Certificate (PC) on April 7, 2024, becoming the world's first eVTOL enterprise with three certificates [1] complete. Thanks to this, Ehang Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft has entered the stage of large-scale mass production. On March 18, 2024, the EH216-S was listed on Taobao with a price tag of 2.39 million yuan.
Among them, the significance of Airworthiness Certification Talents is self-evident. Airworthiness certification is a stage that eVTOL must go through before being put into commercial operation, involving strict technical specifications and safety standards. Airworthiness certification talents need to have a deep knowledge of aviation regulations and be able to assist enterprises in completing the airworthiness certification of eVTOL products. These talents usually include Airworthiness Engineers, Certification Experts, etc.
Financial report data shows that Ehang Intelligent's revenue in the third quarter was 128 million yuan, a significant increase of 347.8% year-on-year and 25.6% quarter-on-quarter, and the quarterly revenue continued to reach a new historical high. GAC Group signed a cooperation agreement with it and plans to jointly establish a company.
At the same time, on August 1, Autoflight's Shengshi Long eVTOL electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft completed the first flight across the Yangtze River, achieving the first flight of an eVTOL with a tonnage of more than one ton across the Yangtze River. Subsequently, CATL exclusively invested several hundred million US dollars and became a strategic investor of Autoflight. On November 12, XPeng HT's "Land Aircraft Carrier" split-type flying car made its global public debut and opened global reservations.
Battery technology, motors, electronic control and other "three-electric" technologies are the keys to the development of eVTOL. In addition to cooperating with advanced power battery and energy storage battery enterprises, eVTOL enterprises will also choose to recruit relevant talents. On the recruitment platform, Ehang Intelligent offers the Power Battery Director a salary of 20 - 40K, 13 salaries.
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Unmanned aerial vehicles are the industry with the largest number of enterprises and the largest talent gap in the Low-altitude Economy field. According to the data of the "2024 China Low-altitude Economy Industry Research Report", as of August 2024, the total number of enterprises in the Low-altitude Economy industry has reached 13,343, and the total number of key enterprises in the industry is 626. Consumer-grade unmanned aerial vehicles rank first with 2,400 enterprises, followed by industrial unmanned aerial vehicles with 899 enterprises. Li Chunlin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, mentioned that according to the calculation of relevant departments, the employment talent gap of unmanned aerial vehicle operators in China is as high as 1 million people. Workplace Bonus has conducted an in-depth interpretation of the "pilot" profession in the article "Living in the 1 Million Talent Gap of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Pilots, Worried about Career Direction".
Also worthy of attention is the Aerospace Information Industry.
At the end of June, Space Pioneer Technology's Tianlong-3 suffered a launch failure due to technical errors; in September, Huawei Mate70 series was released, and this series of mobile phones launched the satellite paging function for the first time, which is particularly suitable for remote areas or environments with poor signals; on October 13, SpaceX's "Starship" successfully completed the fifth test flight challenge... As the future of global information dissemination, the entire aerospace information industry shows a spiral upward trend.
The talent demand in the aerospace information industry shows the characteristics of high salary and high requirements. Taking the Chengdu-Chongqing region as an example, according to the data of the "Urgently Needed and Scarce Talent Catalogue of the Aerospace Information Industry in the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle", Communication R & D Engineer, Satellite Navigation System Designer and Baseband Algorithm Design Engineer rank in the top three of the scarce positions in Chongqing. Satellite Process Engineer, Base Station Engineer and Antenna System Engineer rank in the top three of the scarce positions in Sichuan.
In terms of salary, the annual salary of positions in the aerospace information industry in Chengdu and Chongqing is mainly concentrated in the range of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan (accounting for 33.3%), followed by the range of 150,000 to 200,000 yuan (accounting for 29.6%). From the perspective of specific positions, the salaries of positions such as communication R & D engineers and simulation application engineers are generally high, with an average annual salary of more than 450,000 yuan.
What is different from other industries is that the entry threshold of the aerospace information industry is relatively high. According to the "Catalogue", 30% of the positions in the aerospace information industry in the Chengdu-Chongqing region require a master's or doctoral degree, and the positions requiring more than 3 years of work experience account for 51.8%.
[1] Three certificates: namely Type Certification, Standard Airworthiness Certificate, and Production Certificate. Ehang Intelligent obtained the Type Certification (TC) on October 13, 2023, the Standard Airworthiness Certificate (AC) on December 28 of the same year, and the Production Certificate (PC) on April 7, 2024, becoming the world's first eVTOL enterprise with three certificates complete.
Robotics: Humanoid robots and embodied intelligence are the focus
In January 2024, Elon Musk posted a video on a social platform of the "Optimus" humanoid robot developed by Tesla folding a shirt by itself, officially kicking off a year of rapid development of robots.
Humanoid robots are constantly evolving. On April 27, the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center released the world's first full-size humanoid robot "Tian Gong" with pure electric drive and anthropomorphic running, which can run stably at a speed of 6 kilometers per hour.
The industry is beginning to shift to intelligent driving. The progress of humanoid robots and the emergence of OpenAI have given people who expect to give robots a "brain" earlier an opportunity.
Correspondingly, enterprises have begun to recruit a large number of relevant talents. According to data from iiMedia Research, among Chinese enterprises surveyed in 2024, Artificial Intelligence Data Engineer (29.59%), Artificial Intelligence Robot Engineer (27.35%) and Artificial Intelligence Algorithm Engineer (27.14%) are the three artificial intelligence-related positions with the greatest demand.
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The profitable humanoid robot industry has also attracted large companies to actively layout. When many core component enterprises and leading Internet manufacturers are involved in the melee, automobile manufacturers are not willing to fall behind. In April, Chery showcased a bipedal robot named Mornine. On November 15, Changan Automobile announced its technical layout and future plans in related fields. On November 6, XPeng Motors released the new AI humanoid robot Iron. Automobile manufacturers have provided more choices for job seekers in this field, and the explosive entry into the robot field this year may represent a new employment trend.
In fact, the choices of automobile companies are actually traceable.
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) stated in the latest "World Robotics Report" released on September 24 that about 4.28 million robots are operating in factories worldwide, with a year-on-year growth of 10%. The annual installation of industrial robots has exceeded 500,000 for the third consecutive year, and China has become the world's largest consumer of industrial robots and has been the world's largest industrial robot market for 11 consecutive years.
The price of Chinese robots has reached a new low, and industrial robots have been monumentally applied to the production line. On May 13, Unitree Technology released the second-generation humanoid robot G1 in Hangzhou, with a starting price of 99,000 yuan. On November 5, UBTech for the first time enabled the collaborative operation of humanoid robots and unmanned vehicles, and applied it in the BYD factory, opening up the last 10 meters of logistics and achieving truly unmanned logistics. The feasibility of machine replacement of manual labor has begun to be seen by the public.
With industrial upgrading, the manufacturing industry's demand for talents, especially high-end talents, is becoming more and more urgent. According to the "Manufacturing Industry Talent Development Planning Guide", the current supply and demand ratio of robot industry talents in China is 1:10. Among them, the talent gap in the industrial robot industry is about 3 million, and it is expected to reach 4.5 million by 2025.
The demand for high-end talents in the robot industry is more prominent, such as talents in robot research and development and algorithm design. At the same time, talents who master skills in traditional fields such as machinery, electronics, and automation are also in short supply. The required working years of talents are mainly 5 - 15 years, the majors are mainly computer and technology, mechanical design, manufacturing and automation, etc., and the educational qualifications are mainly master's degree or above.