China – College graduates face challenging labour market and declining salaries

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By memberservices@staffingindustry.com (Danny Romero)

Zhaopin Limited, a Chinese career platform, released a report on its 2017 career survey of college graduates in China. The report found that college graduates are facing a more challenging labour market, and declining average monthly salaries.

According to the report, China will have a record of 7.95 million graduating students joining the labour force this year.

The China Institute for Employment Research (CIER) index compiled by Zhaopin and Renmin University, which tracks the ratio of job vacancies to job seekers in a variety of industries and cities across the country, rose to 1.91 in the first quarter of 2017, from 1.71 during the same period of 2016. The rising index is an indication the labour market had improved with the economy as was reported in April. However, Zhaopin states that not all parts of the labour market are strengthening and the record size of this year’s graduating class is posing unique challenges for graduates.

Zhaopin’s survey showed that 40.8% of graduates believed the labour market was very challenging this year, up from 36.5% last year. Meanwhile, 26.7% of college graduates had signed employment contracts this year, down from 35.4% last year.

The average monthly salary for college graduates declined by 16% this year to RMB 4,014 (USD 585.3). The IT/telecom/electronics/internet sector offered the highest monthly salary which was followed by the financial sector the traffic/transportation/logistics/warehousing sector.

Meanwhile, Zhaopin’s report also showed that it was more difficult to get interview opportunities this year. 31.9% of college graduates got 1 to 3 interviews, and 27.1% had 4 to 5 interviews. About 8.3% of graduates did not get any interviews this year, up from 3% last year.

By the end of April this year, 27.7% of college graduates still had not received any job offers, higher than the 24.8% seen last year. Meanwhile, 50.2% of graduates got 1 to 3 job offers, lower than the 55.4% last year. For graduates who had job offers but declined to sign contracts, the top reason was “salary/welfare did not meet expectation.”

Zhaopin conducted its 2017 survey of college graduates to analyse their employability, based on their perceptions of the labour market, job-hunting efforts and results. More than 93,000 college graduates participated in the survey this year.

Source:: China – College graduates face challenging labour market and declining salaries

      

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