Amid China’s ongoing economic downturn, the official release of a youth unemployment rate that is being questioned for its accuracy has hit a record high. In recent years, not only have college graduates faced difficulties in finding employment, but also master’s degree holders have had to apply for jobs traditionally seen as low-skilled positions. Additionally, the phenomenon of undergraduates pursuing master’s degrees has become increasingly common. Experts believe that the underemployment of master’s graduates highlights a societal imbalance in the labor market, while the trend of undergraduates pursuing higher degrees is a result of the government’s push for education industrialization and delayed employment policies.
Recently, an announcement from Yunnan Baoshan College revealed that the college’s logistics services limited company was planning to hire 7 personnel, including dormitory managers and security personnel. Out of the 7 hired individuals, 4 hold master’s degrees, 2 have bachelor’s degrees, and 1 has an associate degree. Among the 4 master’s degree holders, 3 applied for dormitory manager positions. A staff member from Baoshan College confirmed the recruitment situation, stating that the positions were not official positions and did not require a master’s degree. All personnel were selected based on merit, and the salary for the positions was not disclosed.
Among those on the list of hires, 6 out of the top 15 applicants for the dormitory manager position were graduate students. Based on comprehensive exam scores, the top three applicants were selected. These three dormitory managers-to-be come from majors such as mechanical engineering at North China University, environmental science at Yunnan Agricultural University, and agricultural management at Southwest Forestry University.
In addition, a temporary janitorial worker newly hired at Suzhou Affiliated Middle School of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics was found to hold a master’s degree in physics. The list of prospective hires for the 2024 new graduates recruitment at the Palace Museum also includes a graduate of Beijing University’s software engineering program, who is applying for a frontline security position.
A researcher at the Cross-Strait Policy Association and a consulting member of a Taiwanese think tank, Wu Sezhi, told Epoch Times that the situation of high education level mismatched with low employment opportunities signals a workforce imbalance in society.
Wu emphasized that the issue of high-degree holders settling for low-skilled jobs is indicative of societal labor market disparities. He remarked, “Firstly, the talents being cultivated may not meet the actual demands of society; secondly, job opportunities are shrinking; and thirdly, the overall economic decline is affecting consumer markets. With decreased purchasing power, many professionals are forced to opt for lower-level jobs to earn a meager income.”
Wu pointed out that China’s past economic development models have relied heavily on short-term operational strategies, speculative investments, and an overdependence on government policies or interventions in market operations. Hence, with the economy sliding downward, the social problems arising from employment mismatches and the phenomenon of high education levels coupled with low job prospects can be quite severe.
He noted that master’s degree holders resorting to menial jobs sends a strong warning to current university students. “They might choose to pursue postgraduate studies, but if they find out that even obtaining a master’s or a doctorate degree does not guarantee corresponding job opportunities, many young people may refrain from pursuing further education, leading to future enrollment issues and a gap in academic talent. Many young people settling for low-skilled jobs may choose to ‘lie flat’, which in turn undermines the country’s competitiveness.”
Amid the widespread youth unemployment in China, there are reports indicating that in the past two years, the total number of graduate students at many mainland Chinese universities has surpassed that of undergraduate students.
According to a report from The Paper on September 16, in 2024, the total number of graduate students at Lanzhou University exceeded that of undergraduate students for the first time. In early September this year, Zhejiang University of Technology welcomed more new graduate students than undergraduate students, with 5342 undergraduates and 5382 graduate students admitted, marking the first time the graduate-to-undergraduate student ratio exceeded 1:1.
A compilation by the Chinese state media “China News Weekly” showed that in 2023, several prominent universities in Shanghai, including Tongji University, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, East China Normal University, experienced a similar trend.
Former Associate Professor at Beijing Capital Normal University, Li Yuanhua, pointed out that the inversion of undergraduate and graduate admissions in universities is partly due to the education industrialization drive by the Chinese Communist Party, leading to an excessive expansion of student enrollments, particularly at the undergraduate level. Additionally, in recent years, the challenging job market has left many feeling there are limited employment opportunities, hence they believe that pursuing a master’s degree may offer better job prospects. “Society is increasingly pursuing higher education degrees; people are studying just for the sake of studying, without actual job prospects, which is wasteful.”
Wu Sezhi argued that the trend of undergraduates pursuing advanced degrees instead of entering the workforce immediately is a deliberate strategy by the Chinese Communist Party to delay graduate employment and curb an immediate surge in unemployment rates. He explained, “Chinese universities are fixated on the employment rates of their graduates to demonstrate competitiveness, as this utilitarian approach dominates their operations. As the Chinese economy slows down, the declining employment rates for university graduates and the simultaneous increase in unemployment rates lead students or universities to opt for continued postgraduate studies as a superficial solution to unemployment issues. However, this delay in employment ultimately results in the phenomenon of high education levels coupled with low job prospects.”
In June 2023, the youth unemployment rate among urban youths aged 16 to 24 in China reached a record high of 21.3%, with experts predicting a continued rise in unemployment rates for recent graduates in 2023. However, the Chinese government began suppressing such unemployment figures, and by August 2023, stopped disclosing this data. In the employment data released since January this year, full-time students were no longer included.
According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, as of August this year, the youth unemployment rate among those aged 16 to 24 has risen to 18.8%, reaching the highest level since the resumption of publicizing the youth unemployment rate in January.
Wu Sezhi expressed that the official figures released by the Chinese government are often inflated, citing that an 18.8% unemployment rate, as presently announced, would be considered quite high in Western countries. He estimated that there could be a discrepancy of up to twice the official figures, indicating that the actual youth unemployment rate in China might be close to 40%, meaning that 4 out of 10 Chinese young people are unemployed.