Pre-Master's A, 2009-10: Jessica's essay

The reason of employment difficulty for university graduates

In China,the employment difficulty is still a big problem for university graduates.Many research have been done to analyze the reason but most of them only focus on the education and lack of demand in job market. This essay tend to evaluate these research and then put forward a new viewpoint from economy perspective.In the process,the essay will give the brief background information about this phenomenon ,analyze the defects of the employment structure , then compare the employment situation with Hongkong ,finally ,suggestion for Government to solve this problem more effectively.

According to Ministry of Education statistics,more than 6 million students will graduate from university this year ,which is nearly 6 times more than that in 2002.But it predicts that 2 million graduates will not find job even include postgraduates and doctoral graduates. Nowadays,there are two main analyzation to explain the cause of this phenomenon .

when the thoery of mass higher education proposed,Chinase government started a plan to increase rate of enrollment to 15 per cent by 2010( Limin,2006) .Limin analyzed that“ it would require little government investment but surely stimulate domestic consumption demand”,which is benefit for the economic development. However,with the increasing number of enrollment ,the gap bewteen the supply of graduates and demand of employers has been growing rapidly that lead to high level competation for job and also the increasing umemployment rate.So the first main analyzation think that the low employment is caused by increasing enrollment.However ,actually It is just one of the reason but still not the main one.Before giving the main cause,the second analyztion is as follows.

The second one is related to a word called “mismatched job”,which means the major learned in university isn’t matched with what is needed in job. When more and more people concerned the umployment probelm,this word become popular in China and almost every graduates try to use this word to define the reason why they can’t find job.However,actually in China the higher education is liberal education not special education that means its purpose is to teach student with broad knowledge not cultivate them to become specialist that would be done in Master course.So it imply that the major in university are not designed sociated to the job,let alone the word “mismatched job”.And Xianping(2009) said that actually there are many fresh employers with so-called different major according to his research and “mismatch” is not the main reason that graduates can not get job.

But what is main cause for the employment difficulty?According to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, the rate of unemploymennt in Hong Kong only have 2.2% in 2010 and “Financial services, trading and logistics, tourism, and producer and professional services are the Four Key Industries,which is nearly account for half of total number of employment.And China has different situation that “Mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and the production and supply of electricity, water, and gas, and construction” are the main part of employment(Aimin,2002).With this industry structure,it is difficult to creat enough position for graduates.

The reason is that China as one of largest manufactoring coutry was assigned mainly to do the fisrt part ,raw materials and production,according to the international division of labor. The industry chain have seven sectors : raw materials and production, product design, raw materials purchase, storage and transportation, order processing, wholesale operation, retail. Except the fisrt one,raw materials and production,those six sectors can creat a large number of positions for graduates. The first one almost don’t require employer with higher education because of its low skill needed.So the position is limited for graduates and that is why the increasing number of graduates are difficult to find job .And for the six sectors,It is also the reason why the employment rate of in Hong Kong is so high.

However,the government invested huge money for public infrastructure in order to improve the domestic demand .Putting aside whether this policy is effective or not, if it invests to develop the six sector in industry chain ,the huge money would creat more value for society. Because the most of value are added in that six setor.Take America for example,it is estimated that the value created in six sector in America are nine times more than that in one sector in China.So the industry system seems work for America and get low salary.And it also result in low employment rate for graduates.With this poor system,it need to be improved by the support of government and solve this problem fundamentally.

Employment difficulty requires immediate and effective solutions to solve with government support.If the main reason is still not concerned,it would lead to many problems and misled the public.For example,Increasing number of university graduates chose to study master course after failing to get job or even when they fell pressure of finding job.And more seriouse thing is that even if they got job ,it would also disappoint them for the low skilled job.According to this essay,the main reason is the deficiency of industry chain.If it would be improved,it would be never worried about the low employment rate too much.

Reference

1. Limin，B (2006), “Graduate Unemployment: Dilemmas and Challenges in China's Move to Mass Higher Education”, Cambridge University Press ,No. 185 ,pp.128-144.