China jobs: Chinese universities vow to target fake graduate data as employment outlook worsens
- Authorities spurred into action by reports of students forced to accept bogus work offers and colleges threatening to withhold graduation certificates
- Youth unemployment set to worsen as economy struggles to make a post-pandemic recovery
Universities in China have been told to verify graduate employment rates amid concerns that some institutions could be submitting fake data to burnish their reputations.
Central South University in the central province Hunan said on Friday that it would conduct checks to ensure the “authenticity and credibility” of university’s data to determine the “real employment situation”.
In response to orders from the Ministry of Education and province’s education department, the university said staff would have to substantiate submissions from students categorised as self-employed, freelancing, consulting or working overseas.
Hunan’s Changsha University of Science and Technology and Anhui Normal University’s Wanjiang College have also published similar notices following the ministry’s warnings against misreporting employment figures.
“The special inspection of employment statistics of college graduates across the country will cover colleges and universities in all provinces, and serious accountability will be carried out for problems found depending on the seriousness of the circumstances,” the college said at the end of May.
Youth joblessness is on the rise, with unemployment among people aged 16 to 24 increasing to 20.8 per cent in May, above the previous high of 20.4 per cent set in April.
Under pressure to maintain high employment rates, some universities have reportedly been pressing their students to lie about job offers.
Chinese media also report that some universities have threatened to withhold graduation certificates if students from some graduating classes do not submit proof of employment.
In notices to tertiary institutions in recent months, the ministry said schools were not allowed to force or entice students to sign employment or labour contracts, could not withhold graduation certificates as means to coerce students to sign employment contracts, nor could they make students sign false proof of employment.
Analysts expect youth joblessness to worsen further in the coming months.
We judge that the problem of youth unemployment may last for 10 more years and will continue to intensify in the short term
“Since May is not a month usually associated with high youth unemployment on seasonal patterns, we think this figure is likely to tick up further as we approach the summer, when the annual graduation season arrives,” Nomura said in a note last month commenting on China’s key economic data for May.
According to research by Renmin University of China published in June, youth unemployment in China is not only “a cyclical problem, but a systemic and trending problem”.
“We judge that the problem of youth unemployment may last for 10 more years and will continue to intensify in the short term,” the researchers said.
“If it is not handled properly, it will cause other social problems outside the economic field, and even become the fuse of political problems.”
