Recently, the operating data for the year 2023 of the three major telecom operators have been released. From the three annual reports, it can be seen that while their performance maintained steady growth, the personnel scale of the three major telecom operators remained stable. China Mobile's employee count increased by over 1,000 people, while China Telecom and China Unicom experienced slight declines.
However, the employee structure of the three major telecom operators has started to shift towards R&D. As of the end of 2023, China Mobile had 46,456 R&D personnel, accounting for 10.3% of the total workforce, an increase of 1.5 percentage points compared to the end of 2022, with a year-on-year growth of 6,707 R&D personnel.
China Telecom had 32,847 R&D personnel, accounting for 11.8% of the total workforce, a significant increase of 3.8 percentage points compared to the end of 2022, with a year-on-year growth of 10,505 R&D personnel.
China Unicom had 21,218 R&D personnel, accounting for 8.7% of the total workforce, an increase of 1 percentage point compared to the end of 2022, with a year-on-year growth of 2,405 R&D personnel.
This emphasis on R&D is reflected in the R&D expenses, with all three major telecom operators experiencing R&D expense growth far exceeding revenue growth. China Mobile's R&D expenses in 2023 were 28.7 billion yuan, a significant increase of 58.7% compared to the previous year; China Telecom's R&D expenses in 2023 were 13.05 billion yuan, a growth of 23.6%; China Unicom's R&D expenses in 2023 were 8.1 billion yuan, a growth of 18.5%.