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Wednesday 26 November 2008
Crisis Pushes Young Chinese Graduates Towards the Public Sector
The public sector, long shunned by Chinese graduates looking to make their fortune in business, is once again in favour amid fears about the impact of the economic crisis on job prospects.
Crisis Pushes Young Chinese Graduates Towards the Public Sector
SHANGHAI: The public sector, long shunned by Chinese graduates looking to make their fortune in business, is once again in favour amid fears about the impact of the economic crisis on job prospects.
A record 775,000 candidates registered for the civil service examination in China this year – 130,000 more than last year.
Thirty years after the launch of the country’s economic reforms, the public sector remains a haven of stability at a time when millions of workers across China face being laid off amid the global economic crisis.
“We are all worried about the situation and we wonder if we will be able to find work,” explained Ye Liu, a broadcasting student from Fudan University in Shanghai who is among half of her class taking the exam on November 30.
Already around 800,000 people who graduated in 2008 remain out of work, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Next year, eight million more graduates will enter the market just as the slowdown could see China’s economic growth plummet to its lowest in a decade.
“I always thought that I could easily find a job, but with the crisis everything has changed,” said Fu Jiawen, an intern at the human resources department of a multinational company, who is also taking the exam.
“At least the civil service is not impacted by the vagaries of the economic situation.”
China established the civil service entrance examination was established in 1994, but it was not always so popular. In 2000, for example, only 40,000 students tried their luck.
Now even private sector employees have started to study again, aiming for one of the 13,500 positions available.
“I went through piles of work, never-ending overtime,” said 28-year-old Chu Yajie, explaining her unhappiness with a three-year career at an advertising agency.
“I’ve had enough. The civil service can provide me with a daily lump of reasonable work and a stable salary.”
Much sought-after jobs in the customs department pay young recruits a monthly salary of between 3,700 and 4,500 yuan (660 dollars), compared to an average of 2,500 yuan in Shanghai for young graduates in the private sector.
For less popular jobs such as a position at the prison management bureau, the salary is around 2,000 yuan.
The trend to look for a stable government job rather than something in the private sector also appears to be being guided by graduates’ parents, including Chu’s.
Professor Yu Hai, of Fudan’s School of Social Development and Public Policy, said parental influence was crucial in the increasing popularity of civil service jobs.
“Young people have studied thanks to the support of their parents and they always pay a lot of attention to what they advise them to do,” Yu said.
“And what parents want for their children is security and stability.”
In a country where the civil service is very strong and the communist authorities maintain firm rule, a position in the public sector is also synonymous with power.
Students also like the exam for its transparency -- copies are anonymous and corrected twice -- in the same way tests in imperial China opened up the civil service to everyone hundreds of years ago.
However Yu pointed out that in reality, after the written exam, there is an oral test that he said was “far less impartial”.
“The admission process overall is actually not that transparent.”
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Crisis Pushes Young Chinese Graduates Towards the Public Sector
SHANGHAI: The public sector, long shunned by Chinese graduates looking to make their fortune in business, is once again in favour amid fears about the impact of the economic crisis on job prospects.
A record 775,000 candidates registered for the civil service examination in China this year – 130,000 more than last year.
Thirty years after the launch of the country’s economic reforms, the public sector remains a haven of stability at a time when millions of workers across China face being laid off amid the global economic crisis.
“We are all worried about the situation and we wonder if we will be able to find work,” explained Ye Liu, a broadcasting student from Fudan University in Shanghai who is among half of her class taking the exam on November 30.
Already around 800,000 people who graduated in 2008 remain out of work, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Next year, eight million more graduates will enter the market just as the slowdown could see China’s economic growth plummet to its lowest in a decade.
“I always thought that I could easily find a job, but with the crisis everything has changed,” said Fu Jiawen, an intern at the human resources department of a multinational company, who is also taking the exam.
“At least the civil service is not impacted by the vagaries of the economic situation.”
China established the civil service entrance examination was established in 1994, but it was not always so popular. In 2000, for example, only 40,000 students tried their luck.
Now even private sector employees have started to study again, aiming for one of the 13,500 positions available.
“I went through piles of work, never-ending overtime,” said 28-year-old Chu Yajie, explaining her unhappiness with a three-year career at an advertising agency.
“I’ve had enough. The civil service can provide me with a daily lump of reasonable work and a stable salary.”
Much sought-after jobs in the customs department pay young recruits a monthly salary of between 3,700 and 4,500 yuan (660 dollars), compared to an average of 2,500 yuan in Shanghai for young graduates in the private sector.
For less popular jobs such as a position at the prison management bureau, the salary is around 2,000 yuan.
The trend to look for a stable government job rather than something in the private sector also appears to be being guided by graduates’ parents, including Chu’s.
Professor Yu Hai, of Fudan’s School of Social Development and Public Policy, said parental influence was crucial in the increasing popularity of civil service jobs.
“Young people have studied thanks to the support of their parents and they always pay a lot of attention to what they advise them to do,” Yu said.
“And what parents want for their children is security and stability.”
In a country where the civil service is very strong and the communist authorities maintain firm rule, a position in the public sector is also synonymous with power.
Students also like the exam for its transparency -- copies are anonymous and corrected twice -- in the same way tests in imperial China opened up the civil service to everyone hundreds of years ago.
However Yu pointed out that in reality, after the written exam, there is an oral test that he said was “far less impartial”.
“The admission process overall is actually not that transparent.”
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