"Internet companies that want to make cars are prying talents from us, and other rival automakers are also trying to lure them away," said Wang Jun, vice president of Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. "It has not only inflated human-resource costs but also changed people's expectations about their future."

The positions in top demand include designers, software developers and engineers focusing on systems architecture and creating "smart cities", said Shirley Xia, an auto-industry recruiter in Beijing for Aimsen & Company.

Recently, Xia and seven colleagues suspended all projects for 45 days to search for an engineer to design charging poles for EVs.

Their client, an auto parts maker, wanted someone with at least three years of experience but settled for a candidate with half that.

"For some positions that only emerged over the past couple of years, there aren't that many talents in the market," Xia said. "It's challenging for us to find candidates."

Salaries for key research-and-development workers have risen 30 percent this year, with some reaching 1 million yuan ($151,000), said Jennifer Feng, chief human resource expert at Shanghai-based 51job Inc. That's almost 16 times the national average for urban Chinese, based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics.