Greater emphasis is placed on the employment of college graduates
Employment is the foundation of people's livelihood, connected to the lights of thousands of homes and the overall economic situation. The employment of young people such as college graduates is related to people's livelihood and well-being, economic development and the future of the country. This year, the number of college graduates in China will reach 1158.2022 million, a record high. The <> Central Economic Work Conference proposed to implement the detailed employment priority policy and put the promotion of the employment of young people, especially college graduates, in a more prominent position. In this issue, experts are invited to discuss related issues.
Grasp the top priority of stabilizing employment
How to understand the importance of employment work for college graduates? What policies has the state introduced to stabilize and expand the employment of young people?
Lai Desheng [Professor and Deputy Director of the Social and Ecological Civilization Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School (National Academy of Administration)]: The employment of college graduates is the top priority of stable employment. Employment is the most basic livelihood, and good employment will bring more satisfactory income and more reliable social security. Every college graduate is the hope of the family, carrying the dreams and glory of the family. The high-quality and full employment of college graduates plays a fundamental role in improving the well-being of families and improving the quality of people's lives.
The employment of college graduates is an important support for high-quality development. High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, and we must adhere to the core position of innovation in the overall situation of modernization. There are many factors that determine innovation, and human capital plays a key role. As a group with high human capital, college graduates are an important force for innovation. In a sense, adding tens of millions of college graduates every year is the strength for China to build an innovative country and achieve innovation-driven development.
In recent years, the employment situation of college graduates has undergone new changes. The number of graduates continues to reach record highs, reaching a record 1158.2023 million this year, while the number of new growth workers who need to be employed in cities and towns will reach 1662.00 million in 20, and college graduates account for a relatively large proportion of them. Most of the college graduates are now "post-67s", and their employment expectations are very different from their parents' generations, and they have more personalized and diversified needs for jobs. Since the large-scale expansion of higher education at the end of the 47th century, the professional structure of college graduates in China has changed, which is highlighted by the sharp decline in the proportion of graduates of science, engineering, agriculture and medicine, from about 4% at the beginning of the expansion to about 5% at present, and the proportion of graduates in humanities and social sciences has increased significantly. At the same time, the gender structure of university graduates has changed, and the gender gap in education has been reversed, with women accounting for more than men. In recent years, due to the new crown epidemic, changes in the international economic and trade environment and other reasons, economic growth has faced multiple pressures, some enterprises have postponed or reduced recruitment, or due to scientific and technological progress and industrial structure transformation and upgrading, the recruitment structure of enterprises has changed. Due to changes in both supply and demand, the employment pressure of college graduates is increasing. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in April this year, the national urban survey unemployment rate was 2.3%, down 0.1 percentage points from March, but the labor force survey unemployment rate for 16 to 24 years old reached 20.4%, up 3.0 percentage points from March and hitting a new high since the statistics began in 8.
Higher unemployment means greater employment pressure, and if unemployment lasts longer, it will lead to many social problems. In this regard, the Party Central Committee attaches great importance to this, and relevant departments have issued a series of policies and measures to promote the high-quality and full employment of college graduates.
Expand the supply of jobs through multiple channels. To promote the employment of college graduates, economic development is fundamental, and the premise is to open up more jobs in various industries and departments. The state has continuously strengthened the employment priority policy and improved the ability of economic growth to create jobs. The Notice on Further Improving the Employment and Entrepreneurship of Youth such as College Graduates (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") issued in May 2022 proposes to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to absorb more college graduates for employment, and provide a one-time employment subsidy to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that recruit college graduates in the graduation year and sign labor contracts for more than one year; Steadily expand the scale of recruitment in state-owned enterprises, guide enterprises to standardize the release of recruitment information, and promote open recruitment; Expand the employment space at the grassroots level, and give priority to recruiting or taking out a certain number of positions to recruit college graduates when there are vacancies in full-time jobs in the community; Support self-employment and flexible employment, and provide one-time start-up subsidies, guaranteed loans and interest discounts for start-ups, tax exemptions, and social insurance subsidies in accordance with regulations.
Improve the quality of employment services by multiple means. One of the important factors affecting the employment of college graduates is the matching efficiency of supply and demand information, and relevant ministries and commissions of the state continuously organize enterprise recruitment activities through the "offline + online" method. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has implemented a series of recruitment actions of "Career Introduction to the Future", and carried out special activities such as the 4 million online recruitment special action and joint recruitment in large and medium-sized cities, so as to achieve monthly recruitment and weekly special sessions. In April this year, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Launching the 2023 National Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Online <>-Day Recruitment Activity for College Graduates, proposing that during the event, relevant departments will coordinate and organize offline recruitment and online live broadcast activities, and the competent departments of small and medium-sized enterprises at all levels will organize small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in recruitment activities. As training units, colleges and universities actively carry out employment and entrepreneurship education, strengthen employment and entrepreneurship services and guidance, enhance the autonomy and enthusiasm of graduates in job search, and provide various support for graduates to realize the transition from school to work.
Optimize job search and employment procedures through multiple channels. The Notice points out that the abolition of employment registration certificates will be promoted in a sound and orderly manner, and from 2023 the "National Employment Report Card for Graduates of Ordinary Colleges and Universities" and "National Employment Report Card for Graduate Students" will no longer be issued, the procedures for reapplying for and reassigning employment registration cards will be cancelled, and employment registration cards will no longer be used as necessary materials for handling procedures such as recruitment, settlement, file receipt and transmission of college graduates; Promote mutual recognition of physical examination results, and for basic health examination items, if college graduates have undergone physical examination at compliant medical institutions within the past 6 months, in principle, employers must not require repeated physical examinations.
Strengthen employment assistance for graduates in difficulty in various aspects. Families that have been lifted out of poverty, families with subsistence allowances, families with zero employment, and college graduates with disabilities who have not been employed for a long time will be the key targets of assistance. The Ministry of Education guides colleges and universities in various regions to establish a work account for the help of graduates with employment difficulties, and accurately pushes at least 3 or more positions for each graduate of employment difficulties, and strives to help them achieve employment as soon as possible. The "Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting the Employment of Persons with Disabilities (2022-2022)" issued in 2024 proposes to implement employment assistance actions for college students with disabilities, establish a "one person, one policy" employment service account, and carry out "one-to-one" accurate services.
Graduate employment and entrepreneurship show new characteristics
At present, what are the characteristics and changing trends of college graduates' employment and entrepreneurship?
Yue Changjun (Deputy Director, Institute of Education Economics, Peking University, Director of China Education and Human Resources Research Center): In recent years, the scale of college graduates in China has continued to increase, exceeding 2022 million for the first time in 1000, reaching 1076.2023 million, and will reach 1158.<> million in <>, and the supply scale has once again reached a record high. Analysis of the data of the "National Employment Status Survey of College Graduates" conducted by Peking University, the employment of college graduates in China shows the following development and change trends.
From the perspective of the implementation of the destination of college graduates, the impact of changes in market demand and policy adjustment is significant. The difficulty of employment continued to increase in 2021, and the overall implementation rate was 2019.3 percentage points lower than in 7 before the epidemic. Among them, the proportion of unit employment is less than one-third, which is 2019.5 percentage points lower than in 3. The "reservoir" of higher education talents has played a significant role, and the expansion policy has increased the proportion of further education by 2019 percentage points compared with 4. The proportion of "World War II postgraduate examinations" has continued to increase since 2013, from 2013.2% in 0 to 2021.5% in 3. The phenomenon of "slow employment" is prominent, and the proportion of "other temporary employment" has continued to increase since 2015, from 2015.1% in 3 to 2021.2% in 6.
From the perspective of the quality of employment reflected in objective income, the impact of academic qualifications on starting salary is significant, and the personal benefits of education are still considerable. In 2021, the average monthly starting salary arithmetic for doctor, master's degree, undergraduate and junior college was 14823,10113 yuan, 5825,3910 yuan, 15000,9000 yuan and 5000,3500 yuan, respectively, and the median was 2019,5 yuan, <>,<> yuan, <>,<> yuan and <>,<> yuan, respectively. From the perspective of the quality of employment reflected by subjective satisfaction, the overall satisfaction of employment is higher. Nearly eighty percent of graduates were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the jobs they found, but that was down <> percentage points from <>.
From the perspective of employment distribution, the characteristics of unevenness are remarkable. Large and medium-sized cities are the main destinations for graduates, accounting for 2021.82% in 1; Education, manufacturing, IT, finance, and technology became the most important industry choices, accounting for 58.6% of the total; Private enterprises and state-owned enterprises absorbed 60.2% of graduates; Technical positions are the best, accounting for 44.6%, followed by clerks, management and service positions, with 16.3%, 11.6% and 9.9% respectively.
From the perspective of the combination of study and application, the degree of academic matching is relatively high. The proportion of moderate education in 2021 was 73.7%, which was basically stable compared with 2019; The phenomenon of "learning is not used" has increased, and the proportion of professional counterparts in 2021 was 60.5%, a decrease of about 2019 percentage points compared with 10.
From the perspective of job search intention, the influence of basic factors is great. Graduates pay more attention to development prospects, economic factors and job stability, and in terms of ranking, development prospects, welfare benefits, economic income and job stability in 2021 rank in the top 4.
From the perspective of job search channels, the advantages of the school are obvious. Half of the graduates in 2021 found jobs through schools, and despite the rapid development of mobile Internet technology, less than <>% of graduates actually found jobs through online recruitment. In addition, the role of businesses and friends and family cannot be ignored.
From the perspective of employer demand, factors directly related to employment such as work ability, internship experience, and job search skills are the most important, and the importance of factors directly related to higher education, such as academic qualifications, school reputation, academic performance, and majors, is in the middle, and in 2021, the importance of academic qualifications has increased significantly.
The entrepreneurship of college graduates has the following characteristics. First, in previous surveys, the proportion of fresh graduates starting a business has been low, and entrepreneurship after graduation is a matter for a small number of graduates with entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial ability and entrepreneurial conditions. Second, the entrepreneurial group is more excellent, in terms of ability value-added and learning time, the entrepreneurial group ranks second, second only to overseas graduates. Third, the participation rate of entrepreneurship education courses is not high, slightly higher than 2% in 2021, and the participation rate of "double first-class" universities is the lowest. Fourth, the quality of entrepreneurship education courses is better, 97.2% of students think it is helpful, and 53.9% of students think it is very helpful and helpful. Fifth, the demand for entrepreneurial knowledge is mainly manifested in the understanding of entrepreneurial risks and opportunities. Sixth, the main obstacles affecting independent entrepreneurship are social relations and entrepreneurial funds. Seventh, the family background of entrepreneurs is mainly in small and medium-sized cities, and their parents have higher education degrees.
The factors affecting the employment difficulties of college graduates are mainly analyzed in the following aspects. First, the economic growth rate has slowed, and the real GDP growth rate has generally declined from a high of 2007.14% in 2 to 2022.3% in 0. Second, the adjustment of the industrial structure is slow, and it is difficult for some graduates to find professional jobs. Third, there are large differences in economic development between regions, cities, urban and rural areas, and residents' income. Regional differences are both east-west and north-south differences, and from the perspective of the increase in employment of urban units in different regions from 2011 to 2021, the proportion of urban units in the eastern region exceeds 6%, and the top six provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) are all from the southern region. Fourth, the supply of higher education does not match the demand for economic development. From the perspective of the learning conditions and opportunities provided by institutions, the indicators related to major and employment are poorly scored, and the four items with the lowest student evaluation are off-campus internship opportunities, interdisciplinary learning, professional change opportunities, and career guidance. From the perspective of the value-added of students' abilities, the supply is insufficient in indicators of large market demand such as economic globalization, digitalization, and innovation, and knowledge-oriented should be changed to ability-oriented. Among the 4 indicators, the six with the lowest scores were: financial literacy ability, foreign language ability, understanding of complex social organization and technological systems, international vision, computer ability, and innovation ability. Fifth, while the supply of college graduates continues to increase, the quality of supply needs to be improved. Sixth, the employment concept of graduates needs to be changed, and non-standard employment or flexible employment have become the general trend.
Open up the channel of talent training and market demand
How to improve the employability and market adaptability of college graduates, so that universities and the market are more closely integrated?
Li Changan (researcher of the Beijing Institute of Opening to the Outside World of the University of International Business and Economics and member of the employment field expert database of the Employment Leading Group Office of the State Council): Promoting the full employment of college graduates and striving to improve the employability and market suitability of college graduates is a key link. In fact, weak employability and mismatch between the major studied and the market demand are an important reason for the difficulty of employment of college graduates. In recent years, the work of college graduates is not highly related to their majors, and even among college graduates with the right majors, many of them have become the target of employers who are not hired because the knowledge they have learned is not solid enough, theory cannot be linked to practice, especially lack of practical operation ability.
The reason is that, on the one hand, China's education system has not yet got rid of the shackles of academic education and textbook education, and the professional settings of colleges and universities have not been able to keep up with the rapidly changing market demand, emphasizing textbook knowledge, ignoring practical application and the cultivation of hands-on ability. After many college students walk out of school, except for a paper diploma, they do not have a skill, and their hands-on ability is poor, which affects their ability to adapt to the market; On the other hand, the shortcomings of vocational education are obvious, although China has made a lot of efforts in strengthening vocational education in recent years, and the scale of vocational education has increased significantly, but compared with the requirements of economic development and technological progress, there is still a big gap. The status of vocational education in the minds of many students and parents is not high, and there are problems such as poor quality of students and insufficient teachers.
In order to improve the employability and market adaptability of college graduates, many explorations have been carried out in various places, continuously improving the employability of college students, striving to open up the channel between universities and the market, and finding the combination between knowledge, skills and market demand. Some colleges and universities actively adapt to economic development and technological progress and changes, attach importance to the talent training model oriented by market demand, and are more flexible and timely in professional settings and adjustments.
In order to broaden the channels for students' personality development, cultivate compound talents with broad knowledge and strong adaptability, and enhance the core competitiveness of college graduates, some colleges and universities have successively opened vocational education micro-majors. That is, in addition to the catalog of undergraduate majors, focus on the needs of new technologies, new industries, new formats and new models, improve the core professional literacy and professional ability of a certain field, improve the complexity of students' knowledge structure and its matching degree with social needs, and solve the problem of adaptation between university professional settings and enterprise employment needs under the new situation. In terms of teaching methods, we pay attention to the combination of industry and education, and hire entrepreneurs or experienced entrepreneurs to teach on-site, so that students have more practical opportunities and enhance their employment and innovation and entrepreneurship capabilities. Peking University International Organization and Global Governance Micromajor implements a credit system, and students are required to complete 4 courses of the micro-major, a total of 10 credits, in order to help college students who are interested in joining international organizations to have the ability to work in international organizations and the basic conditions for applying for employment while completing their professional studies. Shandong University has set up a micro-major to bridge the talent training system at the undergraduate and graduate levels, improve the matching between professional training programs and career development needs, and the curriculum is generally high-order, intersectional and challenging. Facts have proved that micro-majors are not only conducive to breaking down the barriers between ordinary colleges and universities and vocational education, but also effectively improving the vocational competitiveness of college students, which is worth promoting in ordinary colleges and universities.
In addition, some vocational colleges set up crayfish colleges, hot dry noodle research institutes, luxury management majors, etc., these newly emerged highly personalized vocational education colleges and majors, as soon as they came out, they were popular in the market, and many graduates were booked out in advance before they graduated, and the salary package naturally rose.
Innovate the training model and open up the "direct channel" between talent training and market demand. Actively adopt school-enterprise cooperation, order-based training, directional training and other modes to seamlessly connect college talent training with employers, reduce the search cost of college students and employers, and improve the efficiency of job search. Establish and improve the long-term mechanism for enterprises to participate in the running of schools of higher learning, accelerate the construction of experimental training base platforms, strengthen labor education, and enhance the ability of universities to liven up their hands. It should be emphasized that the above practice is not limited to vocational colleges, but also applies to most ordinary colleges and universities. Hefei University of Technology has added order-based enrollment and directional training mode in the 2023 part-time master's degree in engineering enrollment plan to promote the integration of industry and education and collaborative education. Some companies have taken the initiative to contact universities to cooperate in cultivating much-needed talents. In addition, increasing the retention ratio of college graduates who have internships and internships in employers is also an effective way to enhance the connection between supply and demand.
Create a good ecology that dares to dare to create
What experiences have been formed in various places to learn from in serving and supporting college graduates to start their own businesses?
Chen Yun (Director of Employment and Entrepreneurship Research Office, Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences): College graduates have a good cultural quality foundation, strong entrepreneurial aspirations, active innovative thinking, the courage to explore and practice, and are good at accepting new ideas and new things, and are the new force of innovation and entrepreneurship. From the perspective of the implementation of the employment direction of fresh graduates, about hundreds of thousands of fresh graduates directly achieve employment through entrepreneurship every year, and each entrepreneurial project can directly drive more people to employment. Although the number of entrepreneurs does not account for a very high proportion of the total number of fresh graduates, its leading and driving role is of great significance. Encouraging and supporting graduates to start businesses and drive employment is not only an effective channel to promote high-quality and full employment of graduates, but also an important way to give full play to China's talent advantages to promote innovation-driven high-quality development.
Entrepreneurial activity is a complex social activity that requires a high degree of integration of various resources and elements and entrepreneurs to give full play to their entrepreneurial spirit. College graduates start their own businesses, which have the basic characteristics of general entrepreneurial activities, but also have outstanding characteristics, but also face some unique problems, such as the sense of entrepreneurial autonomy and the core elements of entrepreneurship are not yet mature, career development and long-term planning are not clear, entrepreneurial ability is insufficient, entrepreneurial capital and other resources are lacking, entrepreneurial project selection is difficult, social experience is lacking, the actual operation of the establishment and operation of enterprises and the market environment is not deep, family support and risk resistance ability are not strong, etc. Entrepreneurship is difficult, which requires not only the continuous efforts of individual entrepreneurs, but also a good entrepreneurial ecological environment and policy services. Strengthening policy and service support for college graduates to start their own businesses is conducive to encouraging and supporting more graduates with entrepreneurial aspirations and entrepreneurial practices to want to start a business, be able to start a business, and truly realize their entrepreneurial and life dreams.
In recent years, China has introduced a series of policies and service measures, continued to implement the college student entrepreneurship guidance plan, and promoted the innovation and entrepreneurship of college graduates. The 2021 "Guiding Opinions on Further Supporting College Students' Innovation and Entrepreneurship" and the 2022 "Notice on the Implementation of Key Group Entrepreneurship Promotion Actions" strengthen the support for workers including college graduates to start their own businesses, and basically form a policy and service system framework covering all targets of entrepreneurial subjects, all elements of entrepreneurial activities, and the whole process of entrepreneurial development, including entrepreneurial environment optimization, entrepreneurial subject cultivation, entrepreneurial resource supply, entrepreneurial activity services, entrepreneurial risk protection, etc., at different levels and stages of entrepreneurial activities , to provide targeted support and services for college graduates to start their own businesses.
Create an excellent entrepreneurial environment and optimize the efficiency of entrepreneurial public services. Vigorously develop new industries and new formats represented by the digital economy, promote the reform of the commercial system, create a high-quality business environment, optimize a good entrepreneurial ecology that dares to venture and create, and create macroeconomic and social conditions and governance environment conducive to all types of entrepreneurs. All localities have actively created entrepreneurial cities, proposed to create a variety of "Chuangxiang" brands, and created an atmosphere of youth innovation and entrepreneurship. Relevant functional departments, schools and institutions organize and carry out the China International "Internet +" College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, "Maker China" SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, "China Innovation Wings" Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition, etc., to cultivate the entrepreneurial awareness of college graduates and build an entrepreneurial exchange platform.
Establish a public entrepreneurship service platform and build an integrated service mechanism. Establish public entrepreneurship service standards, expand the content of entrepreneurial services, gather high-quality entrepreneurial service resources from all parties, build integrated service mechanisms such as entrepreneurial information release, business consultation, capacity training, guidance and assistance, incubation services, financing support, and activity organization, and strengthen policy support such as training, funds, venues, and employment. Build and improve various public business incubation bases, business parks and other carriers, share and publish information such as entrepreneurial projects, incubation sites, instruments and equipment, and build a resource integration platform for graduates and entrepreneurial resources. In public services, implement various convenient service methods such as on-the-spot office, one-time office, time-limited office, centralized office, nearby office, online office, and remote office, so as to improve the registration of business entities and the convenience of service. Jiangxi and other places have opened up green channels for guaranteed loans for college graduates, simplified the approval process and application materials for entrepreneurial loans, and promoted mobile online application platforms to provide convenient services for graduates to start businesses. Guizhou provides policy support such as self-employment subsidies, venue rental subsidies, guaranteed loans and interest discounts to eligible college graduates, and grants different amounts of free funding to the winning projects in the China International "Internet +" College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and the "Challenge Cup" China College Student Entrepreneurship Plan Competition. Yunnan has issued policies to accelerate the vitality of innovation and entrepreneurship, proposing that by the end of 2025, innovation and entrepreneurship platforms such as provincial innovation and entrepreneurship demonstration bases, small and medium-sized enterprise public service demonstration platforms, business incubation demonstration bases, science and technology business incubators, public innovation spaces, and star innovation world will be fully covered in provincial undergraduate colleges, and key groups such as college students, migrant workers, returnees, and retired military personnel will be fully covered.
Create an entrepreneurial service chain throughout the whole process of entrepreneurship. For college graduates, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial activities, provide targeted services throughout the process, and improve graduates' entrepreneurial ability and effectiveness. Before starting a business, according to the characteristics of college graduates and entrepreneurial activities, carry out immersive experience activities such as entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial practical training, and business practical simulation to cultivate graduates' entrepreneurial awareness, entrepreneurial spirit and basic knowledge of entrepreneurship. Jiangsu organized and implemented the "three advances" activity of entrepreneurship training into colleges and universities, vocational schools and technical schools, and carried out entrepreneurship training for college students. During and after entrepreneurship, organize various project selection, roadshows, competitions, carry out entrepreneurial ability training, organize entrepreneurial mentor teams to provide classified guidance to graduates, and provide support such as project selection, risk assessment, business guidance, resource integration, policy support, and exchange platforms. We will continue to provide support for entrepreneurial ability improvement, entrepreneurial mentor guidance, venture capital, credit loans, etc., and provide risk protection for entrepreneurs who have encountered setbacks or failures. Many places have organized and implemented entrepreneurship training "Ma Lanhua" empowerment action, carried out entrepreneurship training for college graduates, and carried out "start your business", "improve your enterprise" and "expand your enterprise" training for different entrepreneurial stages, so as to play an active role in implementing entrepreneurial actions and improving the success rate of entrepreneurship for graduates. (Economic Daily)