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The employment rate of youths entering the labor market every year influences
the potential economic growth to a certain extent. Given China's declining
overall as well as working-age population, higher youth employment means
significantly higher economic growth. China's endogenous driving force for economic growth is not strong at
present, while global investment and trade have slowed sharply, directly
affecting China's economic recovery despite improved social conditions. Although
the overall employment situation, in general, is stable, young people still face
prominent structural problems caused by multiple factors. One of them is the misalignment of labor supply and demand. The large number
of young job seekers has increased the pressure on the labor market. While some
enterprises do not need many employees due to the foundering economic recovery,
industries including education and the platform economy, where jobs for youths
are concentrated, have encountered bottlenecks thus affecting youth
employment. The mismatch between industries and regions has led to structural
contradictions. Globally, the manufacturing sector is the second most attractive
industry for youths. But despite China's industries transforming from low-end to
mid- and high-end, and requiring many high-skilled talents, most young job
seekers don't favor them. The dilemma is that the young job seekers cannot meet
the demand of high-end positions in the manufacturing industry and don't want to
fill the low-end positions. Besides, unbalanced and inadequate development within and among different
areas have made some jobs unappealing to the youth. For example, the demand for
labor cannot match the growing supply of labor in eastern areas, and labor
supply is lower than job openings in western and northeastern regions. Also, the existing system of skills training and certification cannot meet
the demand of the labor market. Many majors in universities cannot meet the
diversified job demands, and the rigid education system does not take into
consideration the gap between graduates' skills and requirements of new
technologies and new forms of businesses due to a lack of insightful
research. Besides, it is difficult for universities to introduce new majors because of
the complicated process and the high cost of enrolling in such majors. In
contrast, it is relatively easier for junior colleges to introduce some
changes. The mismatch between graduates' academic knowledge and the requirements of
employers is also responsible for the difficulties graduates face in getting a
job. What has further complicated the problem is that some youths don't have
clear goals or are unwilling to work, and an increasing number of youths seek
only government jobs. So different government departments should cooperate to create more jobs,
adjust the undergraduate syllabus to suit the job market's demands, in order to
alleviate structural contradictions and promote high-quality employment. First, government departments need to push forward industrial transformation
to strike a new balance between supply and demand, help upgrade industries, and
take measures to introduce new and strategic industries to create more jobs.
They should also conduct research on industry trends, promote the development of
the private economy and integration of development policies of small and
micro-sized enterprises to increase youth employment. Second, the education departments need to establish market-oriented
mechanisms to introduce new majors to facilitate industrial transformation. The
syllabuses of universities should align with the demands of society and
industry, and colleges should keep in mind that they need to nurture graduates
that have high employment potential. The universities should also consider
reducing majors that draw a large number of students who, after graduation, find
it difficult to get a job. Third, there is also a need to take measures to help young people to sharpen
their skills while encouraging them to work in manufacturing. Targeted training
should be introduced for this purpose as well as to adapt to changes in
industries and markets. Steps should also be taken to ensure young employees who
make great contributions to society enjoy some favorable policies including
salary increment, promotion, government-subsidized homes and urban (hukou)
household registration. Fourth, the timings of the annual civil service recruitment examination and
postgraduate entrance examination should be changed, because they are held at
the end or beginning of every year, preventing some graduates from attending
on-campus job fairs and leaving them unemployed. And fifth, it should be made clear that discrimination in employment is
illegal. And to promote fair employment, the authorities should raise the
penalty for breaking the law, and subsidize enterprises that make sincere
efforts to end discrimination in employment.
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