Wage increases, in percentage terms, fell dramatically last year and the trend will continue as economic expansion slows, experts said.

The annual income of workers categorized as non-private sector, those in State-owned enterprises, collectively owned businesses and enterprises funded by foreign investment, stood at 42,500 yuan ($6,660) in 2011, a rise of 14.3 percent from a year earlier.

In percentage terms this represented a 0.8 percentage point increase from 2010.

But wage growth from a year earlier, 2009 to 2010, was almost double at 1.5 percentage points, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Workers in the private sector suffered the same fate. They had an average annual income in 2011 of 24,500 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.3 percent. But wage growth the previous year was 14.1 percent and in 2009 was 6.6 percent. In percentage terms, wages grew by 7.5 percentage points from 2009 to 2010 but by 4.2 percentage points from 2010 to 2011.

Of the 23 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities that released their 2011 wage figures, 15 saw falling wage growth.

In South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, average wages increased by 1.54 percent in 2011, 11 percentage points lower than 2010.

In North China's Hebei province, the fall was 7.5 percentage points from 13.8 percent in 2010.

Southwest China's Chong-qing municipality saw wage growth decline by 6.5 percentage points to 7.6 percent.