China’s universities produce millions of graduates each year, but many can’t get a decent job and end up unemployed or in factories

A record high of 9.09 million university graduates entered the job market this summer, increasing from 8.74 million in 2020, according to the Ministry of Education

Nearly a third of the 135 newly enrolled production line workers at a tobacco factory held a master’s degree

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China’s job market has not been able to keep up with the massive expansion of the country’s higher education system which is churning out millions of job hungry graduates each year. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 12:00pm, 16 Jul 2021Updated: 10:16pm, 16 Jul 2021

What qualification does one need to process tobacco leaves and roll cigarettes on a factory floor?

In central China’s Henan province, the job is being done by people with master‘s degrees.

Cigarette manufacturer China Tobacco Henan Industrial Co. has been at the centre of controversy recently because of the impressive qualifications of its newly recruited production line staff.

Nearly a third of the 135 newly enrolled production line workers held a master’s degree, while the rest were all undergraduates, some from China’s high-ranking universities, according to a list published on the website of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration in April which recently gained traction online.

Just a few months ago, a private school came under the spotlight for similar reasons – all the newly recruited teachers for the primary school under the Shenzhen Nanshan Foreign Language School were master’s graduates from top universities in and outside China, including Columbia University, Tsinghua, and Peking University.

There is a growing awareness among the Chinese public that a good education means very little for many graduates when it comes to the job market. Photo: SCMP