More than 40 percent of employees in China were unsatisfied with their salaries in 2007 amid rising costs of living, said a latest online survey.

Covering more than 8,000 people of various professions nationwide, the survey was conducted earlier this month by www.zhaopin.com, one of Chinas leading job-hunting websites.

When the respondents were asked to rate their degrees of satisfaction on salary, 21.5 percent ticked 70-100 points representing very satisfied and satisfied, 36.4 percent chose 60-70 points indicating an average degree, with the remaining 42.1 percent opting for 60 points below to express their strong dissatisfaction.

Only one fifth of the employers have taken financial measures to increase employees income to reduce the effect of price hikes in the past year, according to the survey.

Most respondents said they hoped their salary could be raised this year, with 30 percent of them hoping for a 20 percent increase, 36 percent for a 50 percent rise, and 21 percent for a doubling of their salary.

At the same time, more than half of the people surveyed said they were looking to change jobs.

The consumer price index, a major gauge of inflation, is likely to climb 4.7 percent in 2007, Yao Jingyuan, chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said in late December 2007.