Why are Chinese College Graduates Jobless?

Jobless China Faces Grad Glut

During my visit I spent some time with my sister and my niece, Qingqing. Qingqing is a sophomore, majoring in Mechanical Design Manufacture and Automation. Within two and a half years, she will be on the job market. Although my sister has made her best efforts in getting her into a right school with a promising major, they are still concerned about the kind of job available to Qingqing by then if there will be a one. Currently, the outlook for college graduates is pretty bleak.

Zhigang, a grandson of the owner of a convenience store near my parents’ home, has been seeking for a job for more than two years since his graduation from Jilin University of Finance & Economics.  He has been interviewed for positions like bank teller, accounting assistant, government jobs, etc. None of the efforts turned the way he wished. At one point, he even moved to Beijing in hope of more job opportunities. That trip rewarded him only with a couple of temporary positions with low pays. The incomes he earned were not enough to cover his living expenses there. After a year he was back to his starting point, home in Changchun. This is an educated young man who is willing to work hard and earn his living. However, the society simply could not help him to fulfill his basic goal.

I know the picture I portrayed above does not match the prospects of China we learned in our media here. To many of us, China’s economy is still on a historic run, posting a succession of double digit growth rate although many other countries are slowly climbing out of the recent economic recession. The reality is that Chinese government is facing a tough issue in easing the employment situation for millions of college graduates.

Recently I read an article regarding this issue.  The author discussed its causes and solutions. The high unemployment rate for college graduates can be related to economic development, education policy making, and reform in the economy as well as in higher education (Bai, 2006).

Beginning in 1999, the Chinese government launched an ambitious plan to boost university enrollment and believed that it would stimulate domestic consumption and ease the rising urban unemployment rate due to the 1997 Asian economic crisis. Eventually it would improve the educational level of Chinese citizen, and enable China to stand in a better position to compete with other nations in the environment of globalization and the knowledge-based economy of the 21^st century (Bai, 2006).  Therefore, a mass higher education system has been transformed from education for examinations to a fee-based, market driven system.  However, China’s socio-economic conditions, the structure of the higher education system, and the society were unprepared to embrace this dramatic change (Bai, 2006).  In addition, being short of diversity in curricula at different levels and in different divisions of higher education determined that graduates were not equipped with the specialties and the flexibility to respond to market demand (Bai, 2006).  For instance, many companies, especially privately owned, do not trust new graduates, who may have learned mountains of theories but the lack of practical abilities. The supply and demand out-of-touch problem had lead to a higher rate of unemployment for college graduates.   Furthermore, the central government was in favor in building up the top 100 national universities to become world-class universities in the 21^st century. Therefore, these key universities were allocated the majority of its funding to the key universities (Bai, 2006). In order to stay in business the local universities and colleges in the economically undeveloped areas were forced to lower the admission requirements to get enough enrollments (Bai, 2006). The quality of a certain group of students would be in question.  In order to relieve the pressure of graduate unemployment, the Chinese government has deployed various measures, such as reforming the residence registration system to enable graduates’ integration to a national job market; encouraging students to enroll to vocational institutes since the job market is in short of technical professions (Bai, 2006).  However, none of above measures has effectively lessened the severity of the problem. At the end, the researcher advocated that China should focus on building an excellent, diversity and different functions system,  which requires to tailor the curriculum to emphasis current and future workforce needs and skills shortages, and to focus on research relevant to economic and social priorities (Bai, 2006).

After reading this journal article and according to my personal experience, I think there is no magical solution to resolve this issue. In order for this dilemma to be tackled, it needs the whole society’s cooperation. People should change their minds regarding that higher education is the only opportunity to upward mobility.  The Chinese people had a long history for pursuing upper level education. It can trace back to the imperial period. The Chinese peoples’ passion for higher education is also associated with an extremely close connection among the higher degrees to a higher social status and wealth. The diploma frenzy is always present. Getting a degree is becoming one’s lifelong goal. People cannot leave the sense of superiority behind when China’s higher education was transformed from the elite type to a massive form. College students should lower their job expectations and change their attitude by going any place where a job is available instead of squeezing into a better condition, but crowded big cities. Community organizations should provide more jobs for young people although now those positions are mostly filled by the elderly. Finally, the major enterprises should shoulder more social responsibilities and also benefit in building a good social image for them.

Works Cited:

Bai, L. (2006, March, 24). Graduate unemployment: dilemmas and challenges in China’s move to mass higher education. The China Quarterly Volume 185, PP 128-144. Retrieved March, 24, 2011from Academic Search Complete Database.

Jobless China faces grad glut.   (2009, April 28,). Newser.com. Retrieved March, 31, 2011 from http://img2.newser.com/square-image/57409-20101109200537/jobless-china-faces-grad-glut.jpeg.