More Chinese cities offer free accommodations to lure jobseekers, ease their financial burden
- ‘Competition is fierce’ for jobs across China as the job pool faces another record batch of university graduates, and many are already moving to new cities to get a leg up
- Even jobseekers in their mid-thirties can take advantage of the free rooms in some lower-tier cities, and some stays can span weeks
Before Sally Zhang managed to find a job and rent a long-term shared flat in Shanghai, she spent her nights couch surfing around town – from friends’ dormitories to cheap hostels.
One of the most unforgettable stays for the 23-year-old, who will officially graduate from a Sichuan university next month but has been in Shanghai since early April to secure work, was a free five-day stay at a studio flat in the northern suburban district of Baoshan.
“The place is very far away from downtown, and there’s no subway station. But it helped fulfil an immediate need of mine at that time,” said the woman, who moved to China’s most populous city with very little savings.
Her brief but free stay was part of an initiative subsidised by the city government to support young jobseekers in an increasingly difficult employment environment, with another record number of graduates set to enter the job market this year while many businesses struggle to cope in post-Covid conditions.
I know that competition is fierce … I feared there would be so many people flocking [to Shanghai]
Baoshan launched its free-housing scheme in June. Applicants can apply for stays of up to five days, as Zhang did, and to be eligible they must be completing their undergraduate, graduate or doctoral studies this year, with a job-interview invitation from a local company.
Another Shanghai district, Pudong, followed suit early this year. And across China, a growing list of local governments, including those of third- and fourth-tier cities, have been rolling out similar types of subsidised-accommodation programmes – largely for fresh graduates – in a bid to not only ease their financial burden, but also to lure young talent.
“I know that competition is fierce, so I didn’t have high expectations … I chose to come to Shanghai as early as April because I feared there would be so many people flocking here in June,” Zhang explained.
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In neighbouring Jiangsu province, multiple cities have offered graduates free housing for up to 14 days while they search for work. Nanjing, the provincial capital, in March designated 500 rooms across 12 sites for free two-week stays for those who have earned a bachelor’s degree or above within the past two years.
In Zhuhai, Guangdong province, the criteria are even lower. Since March, anyone under the age of 35 with a junior college diploma or above can apply for a seven-day free stay at designated hotels.
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The surveyed jobless rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has continued its upward trend this year, standing at 19.6 per cent in March, compared with 18.1 per cent a month earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said last month.
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the China National Academy of Educational Sciences, said the free-accommodation campaign can help alleviate difficulties for some students, but the ultimate solution is tied to the extent of the economic recovery.
“In the past couple of years, many companies were hurt by the pandemic, and I don’t think they can recover to a level of more hiring in the short term. So, I wouldn’t expect too many new jobs soon,” he said.
“On the other hand, most jobseekers lack the skills demanded by businesses because of the tendency among students to focus just on academic studies,” he added. “So, the employment outlook for youths is not optimistic from this perspective either.”
However, Shi Lei, a professor of economics at Fudan University, warns that China must achieve a much higher economic growth rate to meet the job demand from graduates and migrant workers.
“Our study shows that 1 per cent of economic growth translates to 1 million to 1.5 million jobs, so we’ll need a growth rate of 6 per cent or higher to keep unemployment below an acceptable level,” he said.
“An unemployment rate below 6 per cent is a basic criterion for social stability and cannot be broken, so we must pursue quantity [in terms of GDP growth] before we can talk about quality [of the growth],” Shi explained, referring to Beijing’s emphasis in recent years on enhancing the quality and efficiency of the national economy.
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Zhang, who will soon receive her undergraduate degree from the Sichuan University of Media and Communications, was pleased to have secured a job as an event coordinator at a start-up firm in Shanghai, even though the position pays only about 7,000 yuan (US$1,000) a month – much less than the city’s official average pay of 11,396 yuan.
“I’m happy with my life now, because I’m still learning at work,” she said. “The minimal pay is OK to me, as long as it’s enough to survive here and there’s room for me to grow.”
That sentiment is shared by many newcomers to the job market. Last year, the average expected monthly salary for the class of 2022 was 6,295 yuan, or 6 per cent less than a year earlier, according to a report by recruitment company Zhaopin.com.
I beg all of society to be mindful of the issue of college graduates’ employment
More people have also chosen small and micro-sized businesses as their first employer, the company said, adding that this was “a pragmatic choice under increased job pressure, and in line with lowered expectations for pay”.
Zhou Yaming, director of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, said young jobseekers have encountered “unprecedented challenges” since 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the pressure is still mounting this year as the number of graduates keeps growing.
In an online interview last week with Radio Shanghai, the city’s official radio station, Zhou called on people to have “reasonable” expectations under the current circumstances.
“I beg all of society to be mindful of the issue of college graduates’ employment, giving them more attention and support,” he said on Thursday. “In the meantime, I want to send a message to graduates – please develop a positive mindset, have reasonable expectations about positions and pay, and let’s strive for full employment.”
