Talent Retention Index Released

BEIJING Institute of Talent Development Strategy andPeking University’s Guanghua School of Managementhave released the 2024 edition of the GlobalCity Talent Retention Index in cooperation with NatureResearch Intelligence.

The Global City Talent Retention Index 2024 assesses thetalent retention performance of 120 cities around the worldfrom six dimensions： economy， innovation， culture and openness，environment and health， social welfare， and life quality.

The top 30 cities start with New Yorkand end with Montreal. Beijing is fifth onthe list that also includes Chicago， London，Singapore， Seoul， Tokyo， Munich， Tel Avivand Hong Kong.

The top 10 Chinese cities are Beijing，Shanghai， Hong Kong， Shenzhen， Hangzhou，Chengdu， Guangzhou， Nanjing， Wuhanand Changsha.

European cities have generally performedwell in city talent retention， showinga balanced pattern. Asian cities are varied，each with a distinctive pattern basedon its own characteristics. U.S. cities haveperformed well in economy， innovation，culture and openness， forming a strong attractionfor global talents.

Cities rely on high-level science and technology innovationplatforms to attract and gather top-notch scientific andtechnological talents and produce high-level scientific andtechnological innovation outputs. The scientific and tecdvDru3kzOGedFwV1uk9Bbg==hnologicalachievements in Chinese cities has benefited fromexcellent scientific research institutions. Chinese cities haveset up high-level platforms for top scientists to produce highqualityscientific and technological achievements.

Beijing and San Francisco are far ahead in terms of thenumber of highly cited scientists， the ability to attract andgather top scientists， and the obvious advantages of scientificresearch location. The China research community， centeredin Beijing， has an important influence in the world， and theintensity of research cooperation between Beijing and Shanghairanks first in the world， playing a strong leading role inthe global research network.

The European research cluster centered in London pro-motes global research and innovation through extensive collaborationwith most cities within Europe.

The index report also indicates that distribution of globalunicorn companies is highly correlated with the distributionof high-level talents， and the global landscape of unicorncompanies demonstrated a trend of prompt growth， technologicalempowerment， and aggregation.

A unicorn is a startup company valued at over US $1 billion，privately owned and not listed on a share market.

Global unicorn companies are intenselyaggregated spatially. Cities richin education， technology and talent resourcesare also the cradle and highlandfor a large quantity of unicorn companies.Over 28 percent of the unicorn companiesare gathered in San Francisco， New York，and Beijing， and 44.5 percent are based inthe top 10 cities.

A strong economic base is the cornerstonefor a city’s talent retention. Stimulatingthe full potential of innovation is akey factor in increasing talent retention，and the top-ranked cities tend to excel ininnovation.

In today's increasingly active internationaltalent mobility， an open andinclusive cultural atmosphere is a powerful driving factor fortalent retention. The environment and health， social welfareand city talent retention show a strong positive correlation.A good ecological environment and perfect social welfare isan important guarantee to the improvement of a city’s talentretention.

In addition， it is worth noting that the higher the totalscore， the lower the score in the dimension of life quality，and the lower the talent's satisfaction with the city's life. Thisis mainly due to the rapid development of the city， whichtends to raise the cost of living. A large concentration of thepopulation also leads to a reduction in the quality of life.

Life quality has become the biggest obstacle for top citiesto further enhance their talent retention. Focusing onthe satisfaction of talents with the city and improving thequality of public life plays an important role in enhancinga city’s talent retention.