Despite the rising value of blockchain skills in the global job market, some countries like China reduced salaries offered to blockchain employees in 2019, a new report says.

According to the “2020 China Blockchain Professional Development Report,” the average salary offered to blockchain industry professionals in China dropped 37% year-over-year since 2018.

Imbalance between supply and demand in blockchain talent is increasing

Published on March 19, the report was compiled under the guidance of the Internet Industry Research Institute of Tsinghua University. As reported by local publication Sina Finance, the joint report was provided by blockchain professional information service platform Interchain Pulse and Beijing-based headhunting agency Liepin.

Although blockchain job salaries in China significantly declined over the course of 2019, the report still outlines the increasing demand for blockchain professionals in various industries. However, the surging demand is accompanied by the increasing imbalance between supply and demand in the field of blockchain talent, the report notes.

Professional skills of blockchain-focused job seekers are too weak, the report says

As such, despite the rapid increase in job seekers, very few talents indeed meet the job requirements of recruiting companies, the study says. Additionally, the significant lack of high-end professional skills is reportedly becoming one of the biggest impediments for the development and adoption of the industry.

The report continues:

“In the supply-side market, a large number of practitioners blindly follow the trend, their professional skills are weak, and there is a serious shortage of practical compound talents.”

China’s President headed for blockchain in late 2019

Taking into account that China has been strengthening its blockchain engagement after its President called the country to accelerate blockchain adoption in late October 2019, the decrease in the average sum of blockchain job salaries is quite unexpected. However, the recent professional study still correlates with some reports issued earlier this year.

As reported by Cointelegraph in January 2020, Chinese blockchain spending in areas of investment and financing deals tumbled more than 40% in 2019. The data was provided by China’s government-run financial information and media firm Xinhua and financial data platform Rhino Data.

In mid-January, professional social network LinkedIn released a report projecting that blockchain will be the most demanded hard skill in 2020 alongside cloud computing, analytical reasoning and artificial intelligence.