Skill training crucial for the young to navigate job market

The youth unemployment rate has been rising at a relatively faster rate this year. Young people, in particular, need to improve their skills and meet the demand of employers to land suitable jobs, especially because the numbers of graduates and overseas returnees are at a record high.

Data show that about 11.58 million youths graduated from college this year. And according to a Ministry of Education report in 2022, the number of returnees seeking jobs in 2020 rose by nearly 34 percent year-on-year. Besides, many graduates who couldn't find a job in the past couple of years are still seeking employment, increasing the pressure on the labor market.

That job creation has not kept pace with economic recovery is evident, and measures should be taken to help young people improve their skills so they can find employment.

Structural adjustments in the economy have also resulted in significant job losses in the modern service industry, such as education, the platform economy, entertainment and real estate, where jobs for young people are concentrated.

Structural unemployment, caused by industrial reorganization, especially due to technological changes, is a long-term problem, and human capital can depreciate faster amid rapid technological development and changes in the economic structure, rendering many people jobless.

If the education system and skill training do not adapt to the economic structural changes, the short-term unemployment problem may become a long-term problem.

The existing system of skills training and certification cannot meet the demand of the labor market where new technologies and new forms of businesses abound. It is therefore important for workers to undergo retraining to adapt to the changing technologies and industrial transformation.

The government's long-term task is to help sharpen young people's skills to overcome the problems created by the structural changes in the country's economy.

Yet the necessity to create more jobs to meet the demands of national development policy and the new technological revolution cannot be overstated.

It is necessary to build an employment "buffer zone" and establish a "full life-cycle skills and human capital" accumulation system, for which different government departments have to establish a service system for college graduates, in order to help them meet the demands of the labor market.

In this context, training centers, and vocational schools and colleges should provide opportunities for people to go back to studies in order to enhance their knowledge and hone their skills or learn new ones, so that they can improve their value in the labor market.

It is also important to address the challenges, with the help of market forces, on both the demand and supply sides. While there are not enough, and good, institutions offering part-time education and training, enterprises want candidates to be highly knowledgeable and skillful. It is high time to allow qualified, reputable enterprises to be involved in teaching and training youths so job-seekers can get the job of their liking and enterprises can recruit the talents they need.

Moreover, the government should implement favorable policies to help youths launch their own businesses. It should also extend employment projects to the grassroots level to encourage youths to start their own business in their hometown or work in grassroots positions.

Different government departments should share the information on job vacancies in the public sector and State-owned enterprises with the people, create more jobs in the fields of education and scientific research, and encourage scientific research institutions to hire college graduates to work as research assistants.

More importantly, the top-level design for higher education should be changed, and a new syllabus and curriculum devised to meet the needs of development in the future and to improve the quality of education.

The author is a researcher at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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