SHANGHAI employees had their pay increased by an average 6.9 percent from last year, according to a report released yesterday.

The report, by HR service provider China International Intellectech (Shanghai) Corporation, said this was the first time in recent years that the employees’ pay rise rate has surpassed the previous year, suggesting an improvement in the economy.

In 2011, the growth rate was 11 percent; by 2016 it had fallen to 6.7 percent.

The growth in Shanghai was slower than in other big cities, such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which all reported wages up by over 7 percent.

“About 80 percent of the surveyed companies estimated they would have performance growth this year, compared to 40 percent last year,” said Pang Limin, vice general manager of CIIC’s survey center. “Other statistics also show that economy is recovering.”

But the HR company is cautious with its predictions for next year. It estimated the pay growth would decrease to 7.2 percent in the country and 6.6 percent in Shanghai.

Internet, medical and finance industries led the pay rises, with 10.5 percent, 8.3 percent and 8.2 percent respectively.

Though manufacturing reported relatively low pay growth at 6.8 percent, it was 0.5 percentage points higher than last year, which also suggested an economic improvement, said Pang.