China Youth Worries About Unemployment

MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT: China young people worry about job

SYNOPSIS

The unemployment for the youth, especially college graduates in China remains a critical and persistent issue. A quarter of recent college graduates in China are unemployed, and many of those who are employed end up working in jobs very far from their undergraduate studies. The prospects for low-skilled laborers are more optimistic than for college graduates when factory workers are in high demand because much of China’s growth has been stimulated by industrial sectors like manufacturing, exporting and construction .The oversupply of college graduates has also brought down the average wage levels, as many are forced to take low-paying manual jobs. Central government has made an effort of solving the issue by warning students away from majors with the highest unemployment rates and encouraging them to delve in so-called “green majors” — the ones with the highest rates of. There are also programs of creating positions of village administrative officers, sponsoring entrepreneurship and increasing available positions in the civil service sector. However, none of these programs have made significant headways.

ANALYSIS

The issue of unemployment among China’s college graduates is mainly an outcome of structural mismatches and incompatibilities. The first problem is the disparity between the conditions and characteristics of jobs and the competence and expectations of the young generation.

The second problem is the underprivileged environment for entrepreneurial activities. In many developed economy like the United States, 1 in 8 teens said they want to start their own business (Teens and Career Survey), “whereas the percentage of enterprising graduates in China, in spite of many favorable policies such as tax cuts and lowered capital requirement, barely reaches 0.3% for the cohort of 2009” (Zhao). This difference represents the hardship, hidden costs, and underdeveloped legal...