BY early June, one month before graduation, Li Haiyuan had not landed a job yet. In response to the financial crisis many enterprises have whittled down existing staff positions. Unsurprisingly, much fewer advertisements for new personnel can be seen on the campus this year.
Searching Long and Hard
Li Haiyuan had been scouting for a job for six months. Most of his schoolmates at the China Youth University for Political Sciences started job-hunting as early as last November, when national exams for the qualification of public servants was held. Li waited until last January so he could participate in the entrance exam for postgraduates, which he passed.
This ticket into the master’s program is one he views as a consolation prize, and wouldn’t hesitate to give up if he got a job by signing a three-party hiring contract. The three parties refer to the student, his or her employer and the university from which he or she graduated. Such jobs have better benefits and social security, and what’s more, provide local resident status for those from out of the city (very attractive for people trying to stay in big cities like Beijing).
Li admitted that several offers have come his way in the past few months, from a consulting firm, foreign trade company and tour agency. But the pay was in each case below RMB 3,000 a month. “If I cannot find a desirable job, I will just take a postgraduate degree.” Looking at his classmates who were in the probation period of their jobs, the best paid one was with an educational organization offering remuneration of RMB 5,000 per month.
There are 39 students in the Foreign Languages Department where Li studies. Seventeen chose to remain on campus for two more years to obtain a master’s degree, at home or abroad. Of the remaining 22, eight lucked into “three-party contracts,” six will go to medium-sized and small enterprises, and five made the cut for grassroots positions in government institutions. Only three were left pondering their options.
Since Chinese universities began to steadily expand enrolment in 1999, the instant post-graduation job became much less of a sure thing for the better educated. Employment prospects are unusually gloomy, what with an economic downturn that is wrecking businesses all over the world.
Economic Chain Reactions
“The financial crisis has yet to hit rock bottom, and its impact on the real economy is escalating. This means heavier blows to the employment sector are on the way,” said Wang Dewen, a researcher with the Population and Labor Economics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This prediction is upheld by the experience of those working in the manpower business. “A big private toy company in Dongguan, Guangdong Province listed ten posts for new college graduates in its hiring plan at the beginning of this year, but later canceled them as its exports dwindled,” said Wu Fan, a PR manager with Zhaopin.com. “The adverse impact of the economic slowdown is not only felt in sectors directly linked to finance, such as stocks, real estate and import & export, but undermines every link in the economic chain, including IT.
Liao Jibin, a manager at Manpower Inc, has noticed that some companies take in rookies to save costs or build talent reserves, but the bar for admittance is set higher now, and the pay lower. When the total amount of available posts for college graduates drops, the competition naturally gets more intense and only the cream rises to the top. To make things worse, those fresh out of school are not only competing among their own rank and file. With so many companies scaling down their staff, the recently laid-off are also joining the job hunt, but touting their work experience as an apparent advantage over new graduates.
Moreover, Chinese students overseas face diminished chances of finding jobs in their host countries, mostly the U.S. and Europe, which are also tussling with a reeling economy. Many of them will naturally consider returning home, putting more pressure on their local labor markets.
“Students of domestic universities can hardly challenge their peers trained abroad in the dimensions of bilingualism, professional skills or worldliness,” cautioned Jiang Yong, director of the Economic Security Research Center of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations. “For instance, most universities in China prefer applicants with foreign degrees when they need teachers and researchers, dashing the hopes of those who hold domestic master’s or doctoral degrees.”
Holding Fast in Hard Times
Wang Liying didn’t look around for a job until the news came in March that she had failed the entrance exam for postgraduate study. When she finally acted, it was too late; the early birds had already snapped up openings with the hot employers. So she decided to try her luck with next year’s postgraduate exam. “Seeking employment is so discouraging this year. It seems better to continue studying. A master’s degree might change things for me.” Wang graduated from Henan University last year, and has since moved to a leased apartment near Peking University in Beijing, where she is now fully occupied with exam preparation.
Young men and women like Wang Liying are legion across China. According to figures from the Ministry of Education, of the 5.59 million 2008 college graduates, 54,600 are eschewing employment to plan for a master’s degree or a study period abroad. Another 165,100 are aimlessly jobless, meaning out of work but with no intention to go back to school either. The two groups account for 3.9 percent of all graduates.
Even in China’s best universities, such as Peking and Tsinghua, the number of students who decline employment at graduation has been steadily climbing. The average rate is five percent in Peking University, but 80 to 90 percent of the people in this category have their eye on higher degrees or going abroad. Those not anchored in a regular job nor interested in more education are biding their time and nursing bigger aspirations. Liu Lin, a digital media major at the Communication University of China, has tried his hand at several jobs since his graduation last year. “The monthly salary of RMB 4,000 is not bad for new graduates, but is far from enough to cover the late hours these positions routinely required,” he complained. So he turned to part-time work, accumulating funds to start his own business. Three of his classmates tried going the same route, but Liu turned out to be the most successful: he recently opened a digital media studio.
