China’s graduates set for another difficult year as job market heats up, firms ‘never want candidates with no experience’
- 11.58 million new university graduates are set to join China’s job market this summer, with the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds at over 18 per cent
- Employment offers, though, are also becoming harder to come by as the economic boost from China’s reopening slows
Even for a small online gaming company based in Beijing, interested graduates might still have to beat off competition from over 50 other applicants to secure a job, highlighting another difficult period ahead for China’s job market, with a record number of college students soon to be fighting for a dwindling number of opportunities.
China’s job market is already awash with unsuccessful jobseekers who finished college during the coronavirus pandemic, but they will be joined by 11.58 million new university graduates this summer – some 820,000 more than last year.
Employment offers are also becoming harder to come by as the economic boost from China’s reopening also slows.
Terry Yin, a game designer at a small Beijing-based company, said his team are hiring just one new graduate with a mathematics background this year – down significantly on previous years – but still received around 20 applications.
Xu Beibei, an artist at another Beijing-based online gaming company, said more than 200 new graduates applied for up to four job openings this year.