How China’s smaller cities are going all out in the race to win young talent
Cities competing with the lure of the big metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai to recruit a young and educated workforce
While hundreds of thousands of Chinese college graduates are flocking to big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to start their careers as the academic year draws to a close, some second tier cities are doing all they can to attract some of this young talent.
Changsha, the capital of southern Hunan province, is offering 30,000 yuan (US$4,400) to 60,000-yuan subsidies to graduates with a master’s or a doctoral degree who want to buy their first home in the city. It is also offering rent and living allowances to graduates for the first two years they settle in Changsha.
A total of 7.95 million students have graduated from the country’s universities and colleges this summer, a 300,000 increase from 2016. They accounted for more than half of the country’s new labour force this year.
A survey of more than 21,000 fresh graduates conducted by part of the human resources company RenruiHR.com suggested only 17 per cent planned to return to their home cities, with the majority choosing to stay in the city where they studied or move to a new city.
About 44 per cent chose to live in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, while a similar proportion of 45 per cent opted for second-tier cities such as well-developed provincial capitals or coastal cities. Only one in 10 were willing to go to third or fourth tier cities, according to the survey published in June.