China’s bleak employment data ‘could be worse’, as education authorities crack down on falsified figures

State media is heralding the dangers of universities forcing graduates to fabricate employment records or sign ‘flexible’ employment contracts to fudge jobs data

From colleges hiring their own graduates to the withholding of diplomas, malfeasance in the education industry is being targeted

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Students attend a job fair in Henan province. China’s youth-unemployment rate reached 21.3 per cent in June. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 9:00pm, 7 Aug 2023

China is taking stringent measures to ensure the authenticity of employment data among university graduates, as universities are reportedly under pressure to fudge employment rates amid a challenging job market that poses one of the most significant threats to China’s already struggling economy.

The Ministry of Education has dispatched special inspection teams across the country to investigate employment-data accuracy and to crack down on any instances of falsification, it said on Friday as media reports revealed that colleges have been manipulating employment rates by forcing graduates to fabricate employment records or lie about their employment status.

The ministry reiterated that universities across the country are not allowed to “coerce graduates to sign employment agreements and labour contracts by any means, nor to link the issuance of degree certificates or diplomas with graduate contracts”.

The ministry and other provincial departments are also collecting reports of misbehaviour and will punish those found to be fabricating data, while follow-up surveys to investigate the job placements of the 2023 college graduates will be implemented, according to the ministry.

“I think the actual state of youth unemployment in China could be worse than the data suggests, as colleges have incentives to inflate the employment rate,” said Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University. “There have been reports of colleges offering jobs to their own graduates just to paper over the data.”

The college employment rate is closely tied to funds, grants, new student admissions and even whether the major will be cancelled – the Ministry of Education stipulates that majors that have employment rates lower than 60 per cent for two years in a row could get cancelled.

The jobless rate for the 16-24 age group hit a new high of 21.3 per cent in June, up from 20.8 per cent in May and expected to rise further in July and August, with a record 11.58 million university graduates leaving campus this year.