Chinese college graduates top 10 million for first time ‘this year is really hard’ – BBC News

“I don’t know what to do. If I can’t do it, I’ll go home first. Maybe when the epidemic is over, I’ll have more opportunities.” Li Ming (pseudonym) is a senior at a science and technology university in northwest China. He is about to graduate this summer, but encountered The most difficult graduation season is the situation of “graduation is unemployment”.

Li Ming was not satisfied with his major in civil engineering, and was preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination. Unfortunately, he learned in February that he did not pass the entrance examination, “There are too many people taking the postgraduate entrance examination this year, and our department has recorded 20%-30 fewer than in previous years. %, if I had this score in previous years, I should be able to get it.”

Li Ming, who has missed the “Autumn Recruitment” (autumn recruitment), has no choice but to start preparing for the “Spring Recruitment” in March, not only running the offline job fair, but also submitting his resume online. The resume is basically in the dark, and only a few local companies are willing to admit it. “Although our school is average, our department’s strength is good. In previous years, it was possible to go to Shanghai and Guangdong, but many of them did not come this year.”

In April and May, Li Ming became more and more desperate. Under the influence of the epidemic, he could not go out of the school gate. He could only “play games and watch dramas” in the dormitory.

There are 10.76 million Chinese graduates who have similar problems with Li Ming. This record-breaking number has encountered a difficult economic situation under the epidemic, and the “hardest employment season” has become a dark cloud lingering on the heads of this year’s graduates.

According to data from the Chinese Ministry of Education, there will be 10.76 million college graduates in China in 2022, an increase of 1.67 million over the previous year, marking the first time in history that the number of graduates has exceeded 10 million.

“Graduates are also different from graduates. The difference between 985 and our ‘double non’ (non-985 and non-211 colleges and universities, referring to the more common universities in China) is that they have fewer choices, and we have no choice. “Li Ming said.

“985 Universities” refers to the project of building a batch of high-level universities started in China in May 1998. A total of 39 universities were selected. These schools are considered to be one of the best universities in China.

“211 Universities” refers to a project launched by the Chinese government in November 1995, aiming to build 100 key institutions of higher learning in the 21st century, including all “985 institutions”.

“Double non-colleges” refers to Chinese colleges and universities that are neither “985 colleges” nor “211 colleges”.

Feng Huamei (pseudonym) studied at a 211 school in the Yangtze River Delta. She also graduated this year. She also has her own troubles. “Previously, seniors and seniors applied for a one-year postgraduate study in Hong Kong, and the success rate was quite high. This year, I voted for three schools. Hong Kong schools have all been rejected. It is said that Hong Kong schools are particularly fierce this year, and 211 schools have no show, so they have to 985.”

Feng Huamei said that she has relatives working in large Internet companies in Shenzhen. She also asked her relatives to inquire about internal referrals or internship opportunities. The answer is that the number of places for school recruitment has been greatly reduced this year, and only a few famous schools are recruited.

“In the past, seniors and seniors basically had seven or eight offers (appointment notices) to choose from. I have only one offer now, and the starting salary is not ideal.” Feng Huamei said that this year’s feeling is that there are many people overall, and the company is recruiting They are very conservative, so no matter whether they take the postgraduate entrance examination, study abroad, the civil service examination, or the career establishment examination, “every way is crowded.”

After the number of 10.76 million graduates was announced, Chinese media were flooded with headlines of “hardest employment season in history”. In fact, with the expansion of enrollment in Chinese colleges and universities, in the past few years, graduates have hit new highs year after year. Every spring and summer, it is said that this year is the “hardest employment season in history”.

However, although the number of graduates has increased year by year, rapid economic development can effectively absorb these new labor forces.

Zhang Jun, chief economist of Morgan Stanley Securities, wrote that if a simple correlation is made between the GDP growth rate in the past few years and the new urban jobs, roughly one percentage point of GDP growth corresponds to 2 million to 2.4 million new urban jobs. .

This year, China’s Two Sessions set a target of 11 million new urban jobs, which is in line with 10.76 million college graduates.

However, Zhang Jun said that to achieve this target GDP growth rate should probably fall within the range of 4.5%-5.5%.

China’s GDP growth rate of 4.8% in the first quarter of this year has almost fallen out of the above range, and the data in the first quarter was not greatly affected by the epidemic, but it was much larger in the second quarter – the State Council of China has just held a national teleconference on stabilizing the economy. At the meeting, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang described the current economic situation as “in March, especially since April, some economic indicators have fallen significantly, and the difficulties are greater in some aspects and to a certain extent than when the epidemic was severely impacted in 2020.”

Under the impact of the first wave of the epidemic in 2020, China’s economy was hit hard. In the first quarter of that year, the GDP fell by 6.8% year-on-year, which was not only the lowest value since China began to publish quarterly GDP data in 1992, but also the first time that the quarterly growth rate was negative. Case.

In contrast, Wuhan was closed for 76 days two years ago, and Shanghai has now been closed for more than 60 days. In terms of economic importance, the two cities are not the same. Wuhan is a core city in the central region; however, Shanghai is not only a manufacturing center, a foreign trade center, but also China’s financial center; the economic impact brought by the two-month closure is greater than Wuhan. big.

Under such an economic situation, the unemployment rate has already risen. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China on May 16, the national urban survey unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to 6.1% in April, hitting a new high since March 2020.

Among them, the most notable is the 16-24-year-old population survey unemployment rate of 18.2%, the highest since historical data.

In April, 1.21 million new jobs were created in cities and towns, not only lower than the 1.4 million in the same period last year, but also lower than the 1.25 million in April during the 2020 epidemic.

These figures reflect the current dire situation in the labor market, and this comes at a time when 10.76 million graduates have not officially graduated this year. Feng Huamei also sighed, “Every year I say ‘the most difficult’, but it’s actually okay, this year is really difficult.”

“I studied civil engineering. I heard from my brothers and sisters, and I also read it on Zhihu (Chinese Q&A website). They all said that this professional bonus period has passed, the salary is not ideal, and the working environment is also poor, so I was dismissed. I made up my mind to take the postgraduate entrance examination for inter-professionals, but I didn’t get it.” Li Ming said that now he has gone through the spring recruitment and found that there are still opportunities for civil engineering, although the salary is not high, but at least it is a way.

“But my dad won’t let me stay here (a city in the northwest). He thinks that he can either go to the coast or go back to his hometown, unless he takes the civil service exam, or don’t stay in the northwest.” Li Ming felt that what his father said was reasonable, but he was even more confused. Because of his passion for fitness, he even thought about going to the gym as a part-time private teacher this year, but many gyms have a hard time under the epidemic. “I also thought about whether to live stream dance exercises online and be a fitness blogger.”

Feng Huamei is also trying to find a way – her family helps her find internship opportunities in acquaintances’ companies, accumulate qualifications, and then find a job.

“One of my best girlfriends is a flight attendant major. She is beautiful. We talked about whether to set up a stall in partnership, and see if we can become an Internet celebrity stall owner. I feel that setting up a stall on Douyin is quite profitable, and it is a way out. But I dare not tell my family, they will definitely disagree.”