However, it should be noted that the examples of data from the report come mainly from European and American markets: among the 112 companies participating in the survey, 50%of European regions, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) represent 46%, while the Asia-Pacific Region (including China) represents only 4%. Consequently, data on wages and reporting on the report market is relatively limited in applicability to the Chinese market and is more appropriate as a reference of international comparison.
If you are concerned about the salary level and talent trends on the local Chinese market, please refer to our previous version“China version 2024 Investigation report on salaries in the 3D printing industry”The content is closer to the real situation in China.The content and data displayed below all come from survey reports on foreign wages. The complete PDF version can be downloaded for free at the end of the article.
The report begins with a significant slowdown in the additive manufacturing talent market (AM) in 2024. Compared to 2023, the number of new professionals dropped from 53.5%, compared to around 86,000 in 2023 to around 40,000 in 2024, covering the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), North America and Asia-Pacific.
At the same time, the problem of the shortage of talents has further intensified. As a large multinational aerospace multinationals, cars, consumer electronics and other industries accelerate their provision in the field of additive manufacturing, the demand for high quality technical talent continues to increase, which leads to the overall contradiction between the supply of talents and demand in the increasingly important industry.
First, take a lookSalary changes。
In 2024, wage growth in various regions showed significant differences. North American wages increased from 3% last year to 5.1%, which improves slightly; Emea has carried out the strongest, reaching a positive growth of 6.5%, reversing negative growth for two consecutive years; While the Asia-Pacific region has continued its downward trend, overall wages lowering 1%.
Additive manufacturing compensation data in 2025 show that the level of salary in the Asia-Pacific region is still lower than that of Europe and the United States, but the growth potential is significant. The median annual salary for engineering stations is around 320,000 RMB, with the highest software sales and development stations, 430,000 and 450,000 yuan respectively, and higher management positions can reach 700,000 RMB.
North America has the first world salary, with an annual median salary for basic posts ranging from US $ 96,000 to US $ 120,000, and managers reach US $ 180,000; Europe is slightly lower than that of North America, with engineering positions around 66,000 euros and a software development reaching 95,000 euros.
Among them, the salary of the development of software and sales positions is most remarkable. In engineering positions, junior engineers have an annual salary of around US $ 60,000, and senior talents with more than 10 years of experience can reach more than US $ 120,000, showing the high demand from the very qualified talent industry.
Then take a look at the different regionsNumber of employees。
According to the report data, the number of people employed in the global additive manufacturing industry in 2024 is around 10%560,000 people23% of whom are women and 77% are men. From the point of view of regional distribution, there are approximately 270,000 people in North America, around 180,000 people in Emea and around 180,000 people in Asia-Pacific.110,000 people。
In terms of talent flow, North America has added 30,000 new people, with a 20%employment change rate; EMEA has also added 30,000 new people, with a change rate of 23%; Although there was no new growth in the Asia-Pacific region, but the rate of employment variation reached 27%. Overall, although recruitment has slowed down, the flow of talents within the industry is still active, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, where the replacement of staff is frequent.
Motivation for job change: salary and career development are the main drivers
In the 2024 survey, the salary remains the main motivation for AM professionals to change jobs, 72% of respondents citing it as the main consideration. Career development opportunities (65.4%) ranked second, reflecting the importance of practitioners on growth paths.
In addition, new challenges (35.8%) and a better balance between professional and private life (34%) have also become more common reasons for job change, showing the double concentration of talent on career value and personal quality of life. At the same time, among the reasons for rejecting employment opportunities, the first three are: lack of remote work or at home (56.7%), insufficient paid leave (55.7%) and poor communication during maintenance (52.4%).
Structure of employee experience: the segments of the average experience dominate
According to the report, the proportion of those who have no experience in the industry represent only 1.4%, 7% of those who have 0-2 years of experience, 28.1% of those who have 3 to 5 years of experience, 35.1% of those who have 6 to 10 years of experience and 28.4% of those who have more than 10 years of experience. Overall, professionals with more than 3 years of experience constitute the main force, and the structure of industry talents is relatively balanced, showing a trend of progressive maturity.
Fundity source of industry: obvious characteristics of cross -border integration
The survey shows that professionals currently active in the field of additive manufacturing (AM) come from several industries and have obvious inter-industrial convergence characteristics. Among them, aerospace is the main source of talent, representing 17.4%; Monitoring by general manufacture (13.8%), material engineering (7.4%) and the automotive industry (6.4%). These industries have provided a large number of professional talents in engineering and manufacturing.
Functional distribution: R&D and sales occupy the central position
In AM industry, professionals are mainly distributed in the following functional fields: R&D represents the highest proportion, at 36.2%, showing the continuous investment of industry in technological innovation; Sales ensued closely, representing 21.6%; And the application and the Council rank third, representing 13.8%. The other functions include: the operator / technician (3.8%), the executive (3.2%), marketing (4.3%), service (4%), software development (2.4%) and other functions (2.7%).
Salary awareness: satisfaction increases, industry between a rational stage
In 2024, 72.9% of additive manufacturers thought that wages were fair and that overall satisfaction was high, but 27.2% still felt unfair. At the same time, 45.7% of people think that AM industry salary is “similar to other industries”, up 3.4% compared to last year; The proportion of people who believe that the salary is “competitive” or “extremely competitive” has decreased by 3.9%, which indicates that the salary stabilizes and that growth slows down, which also means that the industry has entered a stadium of rational development.
Career development path: management skills are appreciated and professional skills are also essential
In the survey on “what skills should be improved to promote career development”,Understanding of industry and market“It is always considered the most critical capacity, with 44% of the additive manufacturing professionals who choose this;Team management capacities(42.9%) andAM Applications and commercial solutions（36.2%）。
It shows thatMore and more practitioners hope to pass technical positions to management or strategic roles towards a more influential position. But at the same time, companies cannot ignore the growth needs of “professional and deeply rooted” talent “. Technical experts, R&D engineers, process optimization staff, etc. are always at the heart of the promotion of innovation and quality in the AM industry.
Finally, according to the plan of Alexander Daniels Global, the 2026 edition of the investigation into the wages of the manufacturing of additives will begin data collection in July 2025, and the full report should be published in November.
Based on the vertical 3D printing recruitment system as part of the resource library platform, we will also launch the data collection on wages and talents on the Chinese market in July 2025, and will prevent to publish the Chinese version of the “2025 of the 3D printing industry” Salary report “at the beginning of 2026. And practitioners will include domestic relationships and domestic talents.
