The hardest employment season in history

With the graduation season of another year, the employment of college students has become a hot topic. 2013 is called "the most difficult employment year in history". On the one hand, there is the pressure from 6.99 million college graduates, and on the other hand, the increasingly sluggish job market and environment. It's not just graduates and parents who are anxious, but also Chinese leaders. Recently, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang chaired a State Council work conference devoted to this issue, after which an action plan was announced to help college students find employment.

In 2013, the number of college graduates in China hit a record high, but according to data from some relevant talent exchange centers, the signing rate was lower than in previous years. Although many recent job fairs have shown that companies offer more jobs than job seekers, many fresh graduates are not satisfied with the jobs offered. Some fresh graduates say that most of the jobs are low-level jobs that do not match their majors. It is difficult for college students to go to grassroots positions. Employers, however, said that recruiting college graduates is worried about their job stability.

A large part of the severe job market is due to the continuous expansion of Chinese universities and the The number of births soared. The government expects there will be 6.99 million university graduates nationwide this year, up from about 6.8 million last year, according to data from the Ministry of Education. Ding Dajian, a professor at Renmin University of China, said that between 2002 and 2009, the number of freshmen each year increased by between 500,000 and 800,000 year-on-year. After that, the growth rate slowed to about 200,000 new students each year.

Over the years, the expansion of university enrollment is one of the reasons for the difficulty in finding a job for graduates. The difficulty in finding employment for college students is not a sudden thing, and it has been accumulated for more than ten years. Years of continuous enrollment expansion have brought the total supply to a very high level, and now the slowdown in economic growth has highlighted the difficulty of graduate employment. Dr. Zhishui Pu of the China Economic Research Center of Peking University also said that the expansion of higher education has brought more real pressure to find jobs.

Faced with huge job demand, China's job market has weakened further. The lack of sufficient official data led to a sharp drop in the number of new jobs posted on the Chinese talent site Zhaopin in April. The number of new jobs in April fell as much as 22% from March, the biggest drop since Chuangzhilian Recruitment began collecting the data in 2010. HSBC China's May Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Preview Index (PMI) showed that employment in the manufacturing sector fell for the second consecutive month. Moreover, the HSBC Services PMI for the month indicated that employment in the services sector was also declining. From this perspective, the decline in hiring is spread across the manufacturing and service sectors.

In order to solve the problems of the sluggish employment environment and the difficulty in finding employment of college graduates, the State Council began to allow graduates to use training centers for a longer period of time, reduce the cost of starting a business for graduates, and provide one-time subsidies to the governments of many provinces to facilitate It arranges expenditures according to local conditions, and increases the number of job fairs at the local level, hoping to improve the employment difficulties of college graduates through these measures. In addition, Beijing has been favoring the service industry in terms of taxation and other policies, so as to create more jobs by promoting the service industry.

The government hopes that such measures can boost graduate employment and maintain social stability, as low unemployment and wage growth are the foundation of social stability. At the same time, a strong job market can compensate for the disadvantage of an aging population and is a key prerequisite for economic rebalancing, helping to increase the role of domestic consumption in driving economic growth.

However, the irony is that while college students are facing employment problems, there is a general shortage of labor. In the face of this contradiction, it may not be possible to fundamentally solve the problem simply by increasing the government's investment in the job market. Only a more scientific talent training plan and the cooperation of both parties can effectively solve this contradiction.

Enterprises should coordinate and cooperate more with colleges and universities to help fresh graduates adapt to social work as soon as possible. Enterprises should also introduce more scientific talent training mechanisms to make use of college graduates who lack experience but have great potential. In terms of professional curriculum setting and enrollment, the school should be based on the contemporary needs of the society. It should not simply pursue the employment rate. From the beginning, it should consider whether the students it trains can meet the needs of the society. At the same time, it is necessary to cooperate more with enterprises to cultivate students' practical ability to better adapt to the needs of work.

Only through the joint efforts of enterprises, schools and students to change the current environment, and with the support of policies, can the employment difficulties of college students be effectively solved and a more complete talent structure be established.