Ministry prioritizing finding jobs for new graduates

The employment of young people, college graduates in particular, will remain the priority of the nation's work in stabilizing the job market this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Wednesday.

The latest official figures show the group is facing increasing pressure in landing jobs as the number of college graduates keeps hitting record highs. There are 10.76 million graduates this year, while vacancies offered by companies have fallen due to the impact of COVID-19.

According to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, 2.85 million people landed a job in urban areas in the first three months of this year, with an average surveyed unemployment rate for the first quarter of 5.5 percent. However, 16 to 24 year olds saw their surveyed unemployment rate at 16 percent for the period.

Competition among graduates to score their first job has meant that they've even lowered their salary expectations.

A recent survey by recruiter Zhaopin shows that 55 percent of college graduates set their expected monthly salary at 6,295 yuan ($960), down by 6 percent compared with the expected salaries of graduates last year. Also, around 34.4 percent of surveyed graduates show a preference for small businesses, up from 28.7 percent of those surveyed last year.

Zeng Xiangquan, dean of the China Institute of Employment Research at Renmin University of China, said the problems that young people, especially college graduates, have faced in finding jobs are because of their increasing number and reduced vacancies available to them.

He said the structural imbalance and people's changed mindset around jobs are also reasons for the intensified competition.

"Many college graduates want to work in offices rather than in manual labor," he said. "In fact, our services and manufacturing industries need a lot of people while these jobs are not favored by college graduates."

The report said that among the surveyed graduates, around 47 percent of them had received offers by the middle of April, which is much lower than the 62.8 percent of those surveyed in 2021. Their average salary was around 6,500 yuan per month, falling by 12 percent from the previous year.

Considering the increased pressure young people face in landing jobs, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that it will continue to prioritize the group's employment this year.

Chen Yongjia, deputy director of the ministry's employment promotion department, said at an online conference on Wednesday that the ministry will further improve policies encouraging college graduates to start their own businesses or find flexible employment. It will also require State-owned enterprises and administrative units to expand recruitment campaigns to provide more vacancies for graduates.