Salary expectations have led to a tense relationship between employers and employees, according to the Hudson 2012 Salary and Recruitment Insight report released on Wednesday.

"Employers are kind of in a dilemma. On one hand, they have to seek excellent employers who can help to promote the company's development. On the other, they should narrow down the gap between job hunters' ever-growing expected salary and the companies' growth rate. Under pressure, they have to adopt the policy of getting more done with less money," said Mark Carriban, managing director of Hudson Greater China.

As China's economy is growing at a faster pace than other economies in the world, employees are seeking the opportunity to raise their salaries.

"About 73 percent of surveyed employees said they are thinking of changing jobs in 2012 and 56 percent of them said they would really do something within six months," said Cherol Cheuk, general manager of Hudson Shanghai, describing the numbers as "astonishing".

"Only 1 percent of interviewees said they would not give any thought to switching jobs. Therefore, about two thirds of the interviewed employers said they are afraid of losing some of their highly efficient employees," said Cheuk.

"About 80 percent of the interviewees said they should see their salaries raised this year and 37 percent of them thought they are not paid in accordance to their contribution to the companies," she added.

About 84 percent of the human resources managers interviewed for this report said the expected salary of the companies' first-choice candidates exceeded their budgets, which means that they have to pay 48 percent more than the budgets to get the ideal candidates.

"More medium or senior level professionals said they needed a salary increase. But on the other hand, companies are under great pressure to control their budgets. To solve the conflict between growing salaries and slowed profit growth, human resources managers should attach more importance to value instead of price," said Carriban.