CHENGDU, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The IT sector has become more and more popular for Chinese university graduates to secure a job over the past five years, according to a Thursday report issued by MyCOS, a major Chinese marketing consultancy.

The report shows that the number of college graduates in China who started their careers in the IT industry has risen steadily from 2014 to 2018.

About 8.5 percent of graduates found jobs in the internet industry, up 2.3 percentage points from 2014.

Vocational graduates also consider the IT sector more attractive, according to the report. Some 4.9 percent of those graduated in 2018 started their careers in the industry, a rise of 1.2 percentage points from 2014.

The IT jobs in the report refer to internet operation, online search engine, data processing, cloud hosting and related services, according to MyCOS.

The booming industry has drawn more Chinese graduates given its high salary. The report shows the average monthly income of graduates in the sector is at least 20 percent higher than the national average.

By the end of 2018, the internet penetration rate in China reached 59.6 percent, 3.8 percentage points higher than the previous year and 2.6 percentage points higher than the global average, according to the Internet Society of China.