Degrees, But No JobsChina's university graduates are facing the toughest job market. By Ju
Degrees, But No Jobs
China's university graduates are facing the toughest job market. By June only half of the country's 2002 grads—about 1.5 million young people—had landed jobs. That's the lowest percentage since the government began tracking the graduate employment rate in 1996. The situation has shocked Chinese society, where a university degree has always meant lifetime security and status. Now, for the first time, the Middle Kingdom has a glut of graduates.
Only a tiny fraction of China's 1.3 billion people go to college. Still, the number of university students has skyrocketed in recent years. A five-year campaign by the Chinese government to expand access to college has doubled the number of those matriculating. In fact, China's class of 2003 is the largest ever—2.12 million students. About a quarter of China's urban labor force now hold college degrees. The problem is, there aren't enough jobs for new graduates—or, at least, enough of the jobs that they want. And there won't be for a long time. "This will be a problem for at least 20 or 30 years," said Yang Yiyong, an economist with China's State Council.
The unemployment rate among university graduates worries Beijing because it's not just an issue of oversupply. There are jobs available for educated Chinese, but they're unglamorous middle-management positions—factory managers, local bureaucrats, even police officers. Many of China's new graduates expect jobs with hightech companies, multinationals or the top levels of government. Some would rather go without work than consign themselves to what they perceive as drudgery.
Managing their high expectations presents China's leadership with a thorny political challenge. In some ways, economist Yang argues, the government is doing more to help college graduates than the mil lions of blue-collar workers laid off from state factories. "Graduates are a sensitive group," he said, "so the government pays a lot of attention to them and tries to meet their demands."
Among other measures, Beijing has begun requiring that universities provide more career guidance. Colleges must set up job fairs and offer employment seminars. In addition, the government is offering tax incentives to small and medium-sized firms that hire recent college graduates and waiving China's hefty fee for registering a new company in the hope that new grads will become entrepreneurs. It is also giving preference to students who apply for government jobs or graduate school if they agree to work in poor areas of the country for two years.
China also allowed private businesses to set up dozens of for-profit colleges to supplement state-run schools. About 14 percent of China's college-aged population is in school now, up from seven percent in 1995. And the leadership's goal is to raise that number to 25 or 30 percent by 2020. By comparison, more than one third of college-aged Americans are in universities.
One reason is that many graduates hold degrees of dubious value, and hence aren't qualified for tile jobs they seek. In addition, some of the new for-profit universities are apparently more interested in charging high tuitions to students rejected by the more prestigious state schools than in providing a quality education. Many offer majors with fancy new names that in reality are old courses more suited to. China's former planned economy than its new market economy.
Even students from China's more reputable universities are struggling to find work, primarily because their expectations far exceed reality. These graduates are also members of China's first generation of "Lit tie Emperors" —only children spoiled by doting parents. As adults, many are demanding unrealistically high salaries and refuse to work anywhere but in China's most cosmopolitan cities, such as Shanghai and Beijing.
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A．Y
B．N
C．NG
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