Two out of every five foreign-educated Chinese earn below 5,000 yuan a month: study

About 40 per cent of Chinese graduates returning from studies overseas make less than 5,000 yuan (HK$6,312) a month - even if they have master's or doctorate degrees, an official study released by the Ministry of Education shows.

The study, based on information from hundreds of thousands of students last year, found that more than 63 per cent of students who returned home held at least one master's degree, 30 per cent held a bachelor's degree, while 6 per cent had a doctorate.

Roughly half of those with an undergraduate and junior college degree are making less than 5,000 yuan a month, the Beijing Evening News reported, citing the study. 

One in three PhD holders and 40 per cent of master graduates are in the same situation, the study found. 

In comparison, the average monthly income, after tax, of people in four major cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen amounted to about 3,500 yuan last year.

Another 40 per cent of all returned students earn between 5,000 and 10,000 yuan.

The Chinese Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange, which operates under Education Ministry to manage returning students’ affairs, published the Blue Book of Returned Overseas Students’ Employment on Wednesday. Blue books are state bureaus' official reports.