Help young people find jobs

“It was quite far from the city center and there was no subway station, but it met my urgent needs at the time,” the 23-year-old, who was bewildered by the high cost of living in China’s most populous city, told the South China Morning Post. Fortunately, Zhang quickly found a job and a long-term apartment.

Zhang’s free accommodation experience is part of a Shanghai government initiative to support young job seekers amid increasingly fierce competition in China’s job market. Several Shanghai districts have launched free housing programs for job seekers, provided they complete their undergraduate, graduate or doctoral degrees this year and receive a job interview invitation from a local company.

Similarly, many cities in Jiangsu province arrange free accommodation for 14 days for job seekers, while in Zhuhai city, Guangdong province, anyone under 35 years old with a college degree or above can apply for a free seven-day stay at designated hotels.

Across China, more and more provinces and cities are rolling out housing subsidies for young job seekers—especially recent college graduates—with the aim of easing their financial burden and attracting young talent to work.

The initiative comes as China hits a record 11.58 million college graduates, making up the bulk of the 16.62 million new working-age people expected to find urban jobs in 2023. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for 16-24 year-olds hit a near-record high of 19.6% in March, meaning one in five young people are out of work, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Creating jobs for so many people is a headache for policymakers. The Chinese government has just announced a plan to promote employment, including supporting financial institutions to provide loans to small businesses to create new jobs; subsidizing companies that hire college graduates or unemployed young people; encouraging state-owned enterprises to increase recruitment; creating more civil service positions for young people, paying higher salaries to young people willing to work in difficult, remote areas...

In addition, the study examines the changing employment structure in the context of increased demand for high-tech workers as China transforms its economic structure from a “world factory” to a more intelligent and advanced manufacturing. In fact, while the pressure to create jobs to solve the general unemployment problem is increasing, many enterprises are struggling to recruit highly qualified personnel in the process of reforming and upgrading production technology.

The private sector—mainly small businesses—has been a key driver of China’s economic growth over the past four decades, providing 80% of urban jobs. But these businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic and will take time to recover.

On the government side, China last year offered 25,000 positions to new graduates, accounting for more than 67% of the country’s civil service positions, up from 40% in previous years. The central government aims to create about 12 million urban jobs this year and has prioritized solving the problem of finding jobs for college graduates.

The Ministry ofEducation also requires universities and technology transfer centers to increase recruitment of assistant positions in the fields of research, engineering, finance, technology, etc. to create more jobs for new graduates. On the other hand, it encourages schools to increase cooperation with businesses to adjust courses, train skills, and majors to suit market needs so that graduates can go to work immediately.

Strategic national initiatives such as the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster, the Yangtze River Delta, the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao, etc. are gradually showing their effectiveness. Accordingly, the world's second largest economy can focus resources on developing important areas, narrowing the gap between provinces and cities, attracting many high-tech companies to set up branch offices in the region, attracting talents, creating high-quality jobs, thereby gradually improving the quality of employment for young people, contributing to solving the human resource problem for this billion-people country.

HA PHUONG

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