Record high 10.76m grads diversify choices in tough job market
Get a job, pursue a master’s degree or take a civil servant exam…? An unprecedented 10.76 million graduates are expected to apply their wits to find a way to start work in the face of multiple pressures posed by the COVID- 19 epidemic and structural contradictions in the China’s labor market.
The graduates of 2022 face multiple employment pressures, and job- hunting is even more difficult than in 2020 at the early stage of the pandemic, China’s Ministry of Education said recently. Some 10.76 million students are about to leave campus this summer, an increase of 1.67 million year- on- year, hitting a new record high.
Experts said graduates are tending toward “stable” opportunities, either the civil service, stateowned- enterprises ( SOEs), or going on to higher degrees amid the competitive job market. The labor market is complicated by lower demand for workers, pandemic restrictions, prominent structural contradictions and mounting anxiety among graduates.
Experts urged young students to plan their careers to increase their competitiveness, noting that “lying flat” is not a good option. Also, they called for more preferential policies to expand the intensely competitive job market.
Yang, a doctoral student from Renmin University of China who is under pressure to find a proper job, said that she is competing with more doctoral students, as many who should have graduated last year but were held up by the epidemic also joined the job market this year.
As graduation approaches, Yang spends a lot of time looking for opportunities from any source.
Like many other students, Li, a student from Capital Normal University majoring in Chinese Language and Literature, is opting to pursue a master’s degree to evade the so- called worst jobhunting season on record.
To be more competitive, about 11 percent of postgraduates aim to pursue doctoral studies, significantly higher than the 4.3 percent in 2021, showed data by Chinese online recruitment services provider Zhilian Recruitment.
Some others are choosing to become grassroots civil servants or community workers, a group of people who have been playing a key role as China deals with the pandemic with a dynamic zero- case policy. Experts call for better policies for these occupations, such as higher salaries, to attract more graduates.
Data compiled by Zhilian Recruitment showed that the civil service or SOEs are the main choices of many Chinese graduates, indicating a trend to seek stability. Compared with private companies, some 44 percent of graduates prefer a job at a SOE, up from 42.5 percent in 2021.