Beijing, Jan 9 (IANS): High-income earners in China, who have emerged since the reforms of 1978, number over 80 million, a media report said on Monday.

Forty-eight million of these are managers or technicians at private and foreign-funded companies, 14 million are from intermediary and social organisations, 11 million are freelance and 10 million work in new media, the People's Daily reported.

In Beijing, high-income earners account for 8.4 per cent of the city's population. The number is 14.8 per cent in Shanghai, and 13.6 per cent in Guangzhou, according to a blue book published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences which was cited by the People's Daily. 

The average annual income of this emerging social class is $23,997, or double the national average. Average spending among high-income earners in 2016 was over $18,937, or 1.7 times the national average.

China's high-income earners are said have changed their jobs frequently. 

Fifty-three per cent of the respondents have changed jobs during their career 37 per cent higher than the average, said the book, and many of them said they plan to find another job or start their own business in the coming two years.