Like millions of job hunters, 22-year-old Ran Qing has been
experiencing the chill of the labor market.
"I've attended nearly all major job fairs in Beijing and Tianjin
to try to land a job since last September but have had no success,"
Ran, a college graduate who studied cosmetics in Tianjin, told
China Daily.
She said there have been minimal opportunities for her at the
fairs.
"I basically have no chance from the start."
She now plans to give up job hunting and pour all of her energy
in preparing for the national master's degree entrance exam to be
held at the beginning of 2005.
"Otherwise, I need to reduce my job expectations to match the
tight labor situation," said Ran.
A total of 2.8 million extra university graduates are expected
to flood China's already-crowded labor market in 2004. Last year,
there were about 2.12 million graduates entering the job market but
only 70 percent have found work.
Laid-off and migrant workers also increase job pressures this
year.
A study by the School of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China (CPC)
indicated there will be 65 million job seekers in the cities but
only 10 million new work opportunities.
"The job situation is unprecedentedly grave," said the school's
researcher Zhou Tianyong, who was involved in the study.
Labor and Social Security Minister Zheng Silin also said job
creation was as big a priority as economic growth.
"While trying to achieve our goals we should bear in mind that
at all times creating more jobs is high on the government's
agenda," he said.
Personnel Ministry statistics indicate that in the
October-December period last year, job markets in 37 major cities
across the country registered 2.371 million jobs and 5.106 million
job seekers, up by 27.8 percent and 1.5 percent respectively over
the same period of 2002.
The number of posts offered in Beijing in the fourth quarter
declined by 21 percent on a quarterly basis while those in other
big cities, like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin, increased by 30
percent over the same period.
People with college and high school degrees made up most of the
job-hunters while those with post-graduate degrees only accounted
for 1.6 percent of the total.
The top 10 professions on the recruiting list were those related
to marketing, mechanical and electronic engineering, computer
science, architecture, economics, enterprise management,
administration, finance and accounting. They accounted for 91
percent of the total jobs and attracted about 80 percent of the
total job seekers.
The statistics also show continuing demand for applicants with
marketing, management, computer science and architecture
backgrounds in western China.
To help migrant workers get decent jobs in cities, the State
Council, China's cabinet, decided that during the next seven years,
about 70 million migrant workers will receive basic training and
many will get additional professional training.
The elementary training is expected to give potential migrant
workers basic information about their rights, laws, regulations and
city life, in addition to job hunting skills. The professional
training will focus on sectors like housekeeping services,
restaurant and hotel services, healthcare, construction and
manufacturing.
Funds will be allocated to the plan by both the central and
local governments at all levels.
About 300 million yuan (US$36.1 million) will be earmarked by
the central government this year to train migrant workers. Last
year's investment was just 50 million yuan (US$6 million).
(China Daily February 10, 2004)