Employment rate of Chinese college graduates continues to remain stable, despite global economic slowdown at 91.7 percent in 2015, as compared to 92.1 per cent in 2014 and 91.4 per cent in 2013. This data is according to survey findings by MyCOS Institute, an education research company indicating that many graduates are employed by private employers.
Through creation of 3.18 million jobs in 2016, the urban employment looked stable in April 2016, according to the Human Resources Ministry.
China is keeping a close watch on its employment scenario as the economy slowed down to 6.9 percent last year and is expected to slow down further in the next two years. About 1.8 million workers were set to lose their jobs in energy and steel sector, officials told Business Standard
The survey further found that 92.2 per cent of university graduates and 91.2 per cent graduates from junior colleges and higher vocational schools got employed. Some 250,000 college graduates in 30 provincial-level regions on the mainland were interviewed six months after their graduation last year.
59 per cent of them were employed by private firms, an increase of 5 per cent than two years before, while the employment rates in state-owned enterprises, foreign-owned companies and joint ventures dropped.
Many graduates are starting their own business, with three percent of them registering as self-employed in 2015. Most of these graduates have secured financial support and funding to set up their own business from family, friends, relatives or personal savings.
Industries such as education, media, information and communications, media hired more graduates, while hardware manufacturing sectors and construction showcased a bleak hiring of college graduates in 2016.
The survey also covered some 41,000 employees who graduated from college in 2012. Their average monthly income was 5,696 yuan (about USD 868), 87 per cent more than what they earned three years ago.
There have also been indicative warnings that the China’s urban jobless rate may triple the official measure. The Chinese authorities may face a bigger worry than the slowing economic growth. A new report by Fathom Consulting reveals that China’s Underemployment Indicator has tripled to 12.9 percent since 2012 even while the official jobless rate has hovered near 4 percent for five years.
China’s urban registered unemployment rate stood at 4.05 percent at the end of 2015, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security told Reuters. While China’s economy grew at its slowest rate in 25 years in 2015, official unemployment figures have remained low.
