For the first Time, the number of graduates from Chinese universities will exceed 9 million this year, and many of the jobs cut by the New Guinea virus that ravaged the country a year ago have yet to be filled. Against this backdrop, the Chinese government recently issued a circular explicitly supporting graduates to engage in flexible employment models such as self-employment.
China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently issued a notice stating that the number of college graduates in the class of 2021 will reach 9.09 million, and that the task of promoting employment will be even more difficult given the uncertainty of “changes in the domestic and international environment and the Epidemic“.
The circular first emphasizes that employment in enterprises is still the main channel for graduates, and that small and medium-sized enterprises should also create more employment opportunities. On the other hand, the authorities, together with relevant departments, will also urge state-owned enterprises to expand the recruitment of graduates, and develop major strategic jobs and guide graduates to key areas of employment.
Supporting college students to start their own business
In addition to these traditional employment areas, the circular also points out that localities should guide and support entrepreneurship and innovation, actively support graduates who “have the will and potential” to engage in entrepreneurship and innovation, and support graduates to engage in self-employment, part-time employment and platform employment.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security encourages college students to start their own businesses, which is actually a “political show”, said Zhou Xiaozheng, a retired professor and sociologist from Renmin University of China.
“As for whether college students can be employed, that is their own business, this is not the bottom of the small officials are cheating the big officials. Since you let me solve the employment problem, I will give you a trick, such as encouraging self-employment, stall economy and so on. In Chinese vernacular, this policy is called ‘head but not buttocks’.”
Taking into account the current needs of China’s industrial development, the above notice also proposed that localities should further implement the “million youth skills training activities”, increase training in emerging industries, intelligent manufacturing, modern service industries and other jobs, and develop training programs in areas such as Cloud Computing, big data, Internet of Things.
However, according to the ranking of the 100 occupations with the most shortage of workers in the fourth quarter of 2020 recently released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China, 72 occupations with the most shortage of workers are related to manufacturing, social production services and living services, and only 19 are related to professional technology. Only 19 are related to professional technology. This means that there is still a huge employment gap in China’s traditional industries, but the salaries in these industries are usually much lower than those in emerging industries, which also leads to a structural imbalance between labor supply and demand in China.
In 2019, China’s higher Education gross enrollment rate has reached 51.6%, indicating that more than half of China’s college-age population has entered higher education and that higher education has risen from mass to universalization. Ten years ago, the number of Chinese college graduates was about 6.6 million, while the Ministry of Education predicts that the number of Chinese graduates will exceed 10 million next year.
Is the difficulty in finding jobs for Chinese college graduates a structural problem? (Photo by Radio Free Asia)
Is the difficulty in employment a structural problem?
In recent years, the employment problem caused by the rising number of college graduates in China has raised the alarm of many industry insiders. Chen Zhiwen, editor-in-chief of China Education Online, posted a year ago that the employment of college students has reached its toughest moment. He said that the gradual slowdown of China’s economy, the excessive tax burden on small and medium-sized enterprises, the rising employment costs and the increasing number of highly educated people have made it more difficult for college students to find jobs.
He Jiangbing, a Chinese finance scholar, analyzed that the government encourages the odd-job economy largely because it has become difficult for other employment paths to meet the growing demand for jobs.
“In particular, the private economy is not developing very well, while state-owned enterprises cannot solve the employment problem and can only help people with connections to find jobs. It is even more difficult to become a civil servant, because now the civil service examination is one in a hundred, so the authorities can only let you solve the problem yourself.”
In order to “stabilize employment,” Beijing authorities have introduced a series of targeted measures in recent years, including expanding the number of master’s degree students and college graduates, encouraging college graduates to work at the grassroots level, enlisting in the military, and launching large-scale vocational skills training for young people. But Human Resources Minister Zhang Ji’nan said late last month that the structural contradictions in domestic employment are still prominent, with difficulties in employment and recruitment coexisting. He said that the difficulty in recruiting general workers in manufacturing and service industries and the shortage of skilled workers, coupled with the global new crown epidemic still spreading, have added risk challenges to employment this year.
It is worth noting that the notice recently issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security also mentions that all places should fully integrate the graduates who have left school without employment into the real name service, to ensure that “registration in place, contact in place, help in place”. The notice requires each place to establish a database of information on unemployed graduates, contact them one by one to understand their employment needs, and provide services such as career introduction, vocational guidance and training and apprenticeship.
According to He Jiangbing, the real-name system for unemployed graduates clearly has a stabilization purpose.
“It also helps to maintain social stability, because if a person cannot find a job, he is extremely prone to trouble, such as gathering, fighting and brawling, etc., causing social instability. The authorities may have this in mind when they require them to register in real names.”
The authorities do not seem to hide this point. This notice clearly indicates that all places should promote the employment of college graduates as an “important political task”, and press the main responsibility of employment promotion and unemployment management at all levels.
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