In China, the economic downturn has made job hunting increasingly challenging for university graduates. Financial elites are now shifting their focus from pursuing typical “fresh graduate” positions to aiming for government positions. Graduates from the top nine universities are vying for positions typically pursued by those from the “Project 985” universities, while those from the “Project 211” universities are competing for regular undergraduate positions. Additionally, due to the impact of AI technology, university graduates are being forced to settle for lower-level jobs.
According to a report published by the Chinese financial media and wealth management service agency “Smart Valley Trends” on Friday (July 4th), the trend of pursuing government positions is now spreading to the financial sector. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is planning to recruit 29 former securities industry employees as government officials in 2025, surpassing the total number from the past three years.
Moreover, according to a recent announcement by the Finance Department of Hunan Province, three young professionals from the financial industry have caught attention as prospective government officials: Long Shuyu from Citic Securities, Li Yang from Quantitative Private Equity Investment, and Hu Yanqiao from Hunan Changyin58 Consumer Finance.
The educational backgrounds of these three prospective recruits include two with finance master’s degrees and one with a tax master’s degree, with professional backgrounds ranging from securities firms to public and private funds.
A well-known blogger, “Glacier Ideology Library,” recently published an article indicating that in April of this year, among the 287 prospective government officials listed by the CSRC for 2025, 28 came from securities firms, including representatives and brokerage professionals.
In Shanghai’s list of prospective government officials for 2025 exams, 15 employees from 12 securities firms have successfully transitioned to government positions.
This shift in career paths would have been unimaginable in the past due to the significantly higher salaries offered in the financial industry compared to government positions.
Unlike the traditional recruitment pattern where fresh graduates usually dominate, these transitioning professionals have already accumulated workplace experience and possess a deep understanding of the uncertainties in the financial market, making them valuable additions within the established system.
The phenomenon of salary reduction in the financial industry has been ongoing for approximately three years. At two major securities firms known for their high salaries, Citic Securities’ average annual salary decreased from 947,000 RMB in 2021 to 779,800 RMB in 2024, while CICC’s average fell from 1,167,200 RMB to 642,600 RMB, nearly halved.
A former analyst at a prominent Shanghai securities firm, Alan, told Nanfeng Window magazine recently, “In the second half of 2021, the top 50 securities firms collectively brought in 10 billion RMB in commissions in half a year, but now it’s basically one-third of that.”
Data from the China Securities Industry Association shows that as of December 12, 2024, the total number of employees in securities firms had decreased by 18,900 compared to the previous year-end. Additionally, in the first half of 2024, the total number of employees in 42 major banks nationwide had decreased by 59,300 compared to the end of 2023.
In addition to seasoned professionals vying for positions traditionally held by university graduates due to downsizing in the workplace, university graduates themselves are accepting lower pay scales in their job searches. Blogger “Doctor Monkey with Masters” expressed that universities have experienced a shift in job-seeking dynamics, where positions once secured by graduates from prestigious universities like the Project 985 institutions are now being contested by C9 students, and positions originally for ordinary undergraduate degree holders are now sought after by Project 211 graduates.
She remarked, “When I originally aimed for a salary of 11,000 RMB, I found myself competing with C9 graduates during interviews. I then lowered my expectations to 8,000-9,000 RMB, hoping to gain a competitive edge, only to find I was still up against Project 985 graduates during interviews.”
C9 refers to the Chinese Ivy League, which includes renowned universities like Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, Harbin Institute of Technology, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Alongside the economic contraction in China and the wave of layoffs and salary cuts, making it difficult for university graduates to secure employment, the maturation of AI technology is also displacing former white-collar positions typically held by university graduates.
According to a report by the British media outlet Financial Times on Friday (July 4th), Zhang Dandan, Deputy Dean of the National School of Development at Peking University and an economics professor, stated at the Davos Forum held last week in 2025 that, unlike the growth in high-skilled and low-skilled positions, technological advancements often lead to a reduction in mid-level skill job opportunities. The development of AI technology has intensified this phenomenon, forcing university graduates with medium to high skill levels to settle for lower-skilled positions, such as assembly line workers or food delivery riders, which were traditionally filled by individuals with high school qualifications.
Following two years of research, Zhang Dandan’s team identified 20 professions most susceptible to the impact of AI, including financial analysts, sales professionals, programmers, editors, and other knowledge-based white-collar jobs. Conversely, positions such as truck drivers, janitors, and dishwashers currently face less disruption.
Feng Peng, Chief Economist at Northeast Securities, while delivering a speech at an internal event of the HSBC group at the end of last year, mentioned, “Many of the sudden emergence of 20 million online ride-hailing drivers last year belonged to the middle class,” indicating a trend where the lower class is increasingly “Pin Duo Duo-ing” (a Chinese e-commerce phrase representing frugal spending), with the middle class now also embracing this trend.