New graduates looking further afield for jobs
Print Edition
AFTER graduating from Tsinghua University this summer, Xu Yingqiang left Beijing to work for a chemical trading company in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
“In cities like Chengdu, I can still pursue my dreams, but without all the struggle,” the 24-year-old said.
This year, the number of China’s college graduates is expected to reach 7.95 million, an increase of 300,000 on last year, according to the Ministry of Education.
While many gravitate toward megacities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, more are keen to start their careers in second-tier cities, according to a recent survey by Zhaopin.com, a recruitment website. It showed that 37.5 percent of China’s college graduates this year want to work in second-tier cities, while 29.9 percent preferred top-tier cities.
“A few years ago, only a couple of students graduating from universities outside Chongqing came for our job interview, but this year we have a long queue of people with master’s and doctoral degrees from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou,” said Huang Zuge, an HR official with a Chongqing Internet company.
Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that besides Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, eight smaller metropolises stepped into China’s 1 trillion yuan (US$148 billion) GDP club in 2016, including Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Suzhou and Hangzhou.
The rapid economic development of second-tier cities was the main factor attracting new graduates, said Su Hainan, vice president of the China Association for Labor Studies.
Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province and host city for the 2016 G20 summit, hit a record with double-digit GDP growth for seven consecutive quarters in 2015 and 2016.
The location of e-commerce giant Alibaba, Hangzhou is famous for its online business development. The export of its cross-border e-commerce reached US$5.27 billion from January to November last year.
Chengdu is home to the offices of 278 Fortune Global 500 companies, and also a key city in China’s Belt and Road initiative.
“I think Chengdu will continue to benefit from the Belt and Road initiative, and I see ample opportunities in trade with the advent of the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone,” Xu said.
Sichuan’s free trade zone was launched in April, and more than 7,000 new companies have registered in the past three months.
Besides economic growth, favorable employment policies in these cities is appealing to new graduates.
Changsha, capital of central China’s Hunan Province, provides housing and living subsidies from 6,000 to 15,000 yuan per year for graduates.
Those with doctoral degrees who work in Changsha can get subsidies of 60,000 yuan when they buy a home in the city.
Liu Xuezhi, a Bank of Communications analyst, said favorable employment policies met the need for innovative development in second-tier cities.
The government of southwest China’s Chongqing has financed 595 entrepreneurial programs, disbursing 16 million yuan in subsidies and reducing 30 million yuan of fees since 2015.
High-quality human resources are becoming a strong drive in the industrial transformation and upgrading of middle-level cities, said Liu Yuanchun, vice-president of Renmin University of China.
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