A graduate communicates with a representative of a company at a job fair in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Photo: CHINA NEWS

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“It is not difficult to find a job, but it is not easy to find a job satisfactory in all aspects,” said Wu Zhili, who will graduate from Hangzhou University of Electronic Science and Technology this year. Wu has been looking for an ideal position since September 2018. His words reflect the opinion of many college graduates.

Job seeking consumes much time and effort. Experts say many factors make the process harder for university graduates, such as information acquisition, family expectations, career sacrifices and preparation for various exams. As a result, many graduates spend a long time finding a job.

“In the past two years in particular, some employers require an internship as long as three months after a job interview. They treat college students as cheap labor, and then they refuse to sign a labor contract spouting excuses, so the costs and risks of the job search have raised,” said the person in charge of the Employment Guidance Center at Huazhong Agricultural University.

Level of job satisfaction is rated low. Some students are not satisfied with the jobs they have found due to such factors as lower-than-expected salaries, undesirable workplaces and mismatch between work responsibilities and their college major. In the past few years, the proportion of students who find full-time jobs in the six months after graduation has shown a decline, while an average of 35 percent of graduates leave their first positions within six months, according to tracking data by Micos, a leading Chinese consulting company dedicated to the employment market.

Why do college graduates still find it hard to get hired despite the remarkable number of vacancies and strong demand for labor? “This can be attributed to structural contradictions facing graduates,” said  Lai Desheng, director of the Labor Market Research Center at Beijing Normal University.

There is a spatial mismatch between industry layout and university resources, leading to regional contradictions. “Shaanxi is home to many colleges and universities, the third most among China’s provinces. It has a huge advantage in human resources. It is, however, still in a fix to keep all its fresh graduates within the province each year,” said Liu Pengcheng, director of the Shaanxi Provincial Center for Talent Exchange and Service.

Also, a gap exists between job requirements and graduates’ skills. Liu said that statistics from job fairs show that companies and graduates, in many cases, find suitable matches in terms of academic background and salary, however, the job descriptions appear disconnected from graduates’ ideal work.

Lai said that each college department’s enrollment quota is determined by China’s college-age population and the long-term outlook for corresponding sectors. Companies’ demand for graduates changes closely with the market. The supply of college students is challenged to adapt to the structural transformation of the demand side. The structural contradiction of university graduate employment needs to be resolved.

To achieve this goal, enterprises, universities and administrative departments should take targeted measures. “Shaanxi’s excellent university resources mustn’t be wasted. In order to help local graduates find jobs, we contact employers from all provinces, cities and industries to attend job fairs here in Shaanxi. We also keep in touch with human resource departments in other provinces to exchange the latest information about social recruitment,” Liu said.

In late March, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launched the Sixth Session of the Joint Spring Job Fair of Large and Medium-Sized Cities. It will hold at least 800 job fairs in an assortment of places until June. In addition, many universities have carried out various forms of employment guidance. Regarding skill deviation, Lai suggested that universities should adjust their management mechanism, course instructors and curriculum structure. Only in this way can they satisfy the changing demand for employment.

Employment discrimination is a blemish of employment. In February, nine departments, including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Education, jointly issued the Notice for Regulating Recruitment Behaviors to ban discrimination against women in employment. Publication of gender-discriminated recruitment information can be fined up to 50,000 yuan, according to the notice. “As a management department, we promote the ‘Human Resources Market Regulations,’ so that companies and applicants can behave themselves in the job search. A strict system for qualification checks and standardized procedures for information verification should be established, so that we can ensure the legitimate interests of employers and job searchers in a legitimate, fair and harmonious environment,” Liu added.

 

This article was translated from Renmin Daily.

​edited by MA YUHONG