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.