China vows to accelerate building of high-quality employment service system for graduates.
China has released new guidelines on building a high-quality system of employment services for university graduates.
The policy document, issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, outlines a comprehensive strategy to promote sufficient high-quality employment among college graduates.
Candidates look at employment opportunities at a job fair. (Image from China Daily)
Establish Nationwide Employment Network
The document highlights six key areas of focus: optimizing the higher education training system, strengthening career guidance services, improving job-market and recruitment systems, enhancing support mechanisms for job seekers in difficulty, innovating employment monitoring and evaluation tools, and reinforcing supports and safeguards for graduate employment.
The document sets out the goal of establishing a nationwide employment services network that is inclusive, well-functioning and reliable within three to five years, laying a solid foundation for graduates to find jobs.
In order to promote employment, the guideline demands supporting student entrepreneurship to encourage job creation through startups and facilitating the hiring of urgently needed talent in key sectors through supply-demand alignment programs, said a senior official from the Ministry of Education.
The guideline also recommends reserving time during academic schedules for students to pursue pre-graduation job opportunities, added the official.
Graduates Exceeds 10mln Annually
Since 2022, the number of college graduates in China has exceeded 10 million annually, making them the largest contributors to new urban employment, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education’s Department of College Students Affairs said in an official statement on Tuesday.
Official data shows the number of college graduates in China is expected to reach 12.22 million this year, an increase of 430,000 from last year.
A problem-oriented approach is urgently needed to address key challenges such as mismatches between supply and demand and to upgrade employment services, the spokesperson said, adding that the measures will help tackle structural challenges in graduate employment.
China has set a target for a surveyed urban unemployment rate of about 5.5 percent in 2025 and aims to create over 12 million new urban jobs.
Li Chang’an, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, noted that employment is the basis of people’s livelihoods. Stabilizing the job market will not only increase incomes but also promote consumption, which is of great significance to economic growth.
Written by Sha Liu, additional reporting by Xinhua, China Daily and Global Times.
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