What was the number of college students in China in 2003?

Adventure Island: Who robbed China university students of their jobs?

Adventure Island: Who robbed China university students of their jobs?

Source: Newsweek, July 2003-15 10:

Graduation, unemployment?

Adventure park? This is probably an unavoidable dilemma for about 1 10,000 China University graduates this year. How long this dilemma will last is related to the fate of thousands of individuals and families.

For a long time, China society has formed the phenomenon that national resources are excessively concentrated in the white-collar elite. The concept of the whole society is that college students become national cadres after graduation, and college students are born white-collar workers on standby. This biased social value orientation makes college students have great deviations in their professional concepts.

Bicycles and mopeds are parked everywhere in the parking lot of the talent market. All the people in line are fresh graduates. The thick resume is clamped by various clips, and the gap between this hand and that hand is filled with bundles.

These graduates rode out early in the morning, crossed half the city, went to the talent market, didn't eat breakfast, and came to the counter to predict their fate. "Key undergraduate 1500, ordinary undergraduate 1200, not a specialist." Miss PR) PR the recruiting unit gave them a weak answer.

"what!" My friends who graduated could hardly believe their ears. The hope of happiness suddenly sank, and everyone froze for a while.

"In June, didn't you say that the annual salary of IT was 60,000?"

"70,000 has also been recruited, let alone 60,000."

"Where did it fall so badly!"

"It is best not to do it. Let's go back and stay at home! " Such angry words come from a simple heart.

"Before," miss sneer, "if you don't do it, people will close? There are many undergraduate graduates everywhere. Before the first batch was sent, undergraduate graduates from northern Jiangsu and northwest China came. Now there are many returnees, masters, doctors and MBAs from all over the world. High-paying jobs are reserved for them. "

Universities in northern Jiangsu and northwest China, such as master's degree, doctor's degree and MBA, are all very distant things, as if they can be ignored. The students who have graduated don't work, so they can only say that they are angry. How can you quit? The cost of living in the city is very expensive. In order to make a resume and buy a decent suit and tie, parents should pay back the debts they borrowed for school and the money they signed up to borrow from the bank.

This passage is familiar to almost every contemporary reader. This "college students' employment version overcharges three or five fights" has long been circulated on BBS of universities.

This year is the first year of college enrollment expansion and large-scale employment. After the large-scale enrollment expansion of 1999, the number of college graduates in China has surged to 2120,000 this year, which is as high as 46% compared with last year and twice that of 1998. However, the "three to five fights and more charges" in the talent market did not bring you the joy of a bumper harvest.

For the 65,438+0,000 college students and the 65,438+0,000 families behind them, what I read from this online article is completely "sad" (one netizen said).

The most severe employment situation in 50 years

On July 2, the graduation ceremony was over, and Yuan Feng received a green cover diploma after completing the school leaving formalities. Meanwhile, he lost his job.

This diploma, which took four years of hard work, did not bring Yuan Feng the job he wanted. According to official statistics, he became one of the college graduates who failed to apply for employment this year.

When he took the college entrance examination that year, Yuan Feng would never have thought that he had to face the most severe employment situation for college students since the founding of the People's Republic of China-in the employment rate just announced by the Ministry of Education of China not long ago, the signing rate of graduates nationwide was only about 50%.

However, since 1996, the national statistical employment rate has not been lower than 75%- 1996. By 2002, the employment rate of college graduates was 93.7%, 97. 1%, 76.8%, 79.3% and 82.0% respectively.

In fact, if compared with the national package distribution system in previous decades-the employment rate is close to 100%, this figure may be the lowest in 50 years.

Two years ago, Yuan Feng's computer major was one of the majors with the highest employment rate. But today, the situation is extremely grim. According to the statistics of north china university of technology, Yuan Feng's alma mater, the employment rate of this major only reached 30. 15% as of June 23rd, which is one of the lowest in this school.

In the past few years, another "hot spot" for easy employment-English major has dropped to a record-breaking 22.64% of schools.

Although the bitterness and happiness of schools in different places are uneven, such as Tongji University, Xi Jiaotong University, Hunan Normal University and Qingda, the employment rate exceeds 90%. The signing rate of colleges and universities in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi 'an and other places is basically the same as last year, reaching more than 73% in Shanghai. But on the whole, this wave of employment problems is national.

The Ministry of Education said on July 6th that more than 6,543.8+0,600 national graduates have signed contracts, of which 80% are graduate students, 60% are undergraduates, and 30% are junior college students and higher vocational students.

When commenting on the current situation, the word used by the Ministry of Education is "the employment rate is rising steadily". However, behind these figures, there are still 1.06 million college students who are "not yet employed" while getting their diplomas.

Last June, 15, the figure was only 348,000.

In Guangdong, which has a strong employment absorption capacity, the number of college graduates who need to arrange employment this year has reached 1.77 million. The relevant departments predict that the primary employment rate (the employment rate of college students when they leave school) is around 50%. Together with the graduates from universities outside Guangdong who have returned to Guangdong for employment, it is estimated that 70,000 college graduates will be temporarily unable to find jobs this year.

"The situation is not optimistic," commented Wen Dongmao, vice president of Peking University Institute of Education. A commentator's article in People's Daily said that this is "a major event that concerns the overall situation-the vital interests of more than 2 million graduates, the reform and development of higher education, the implementation of the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, and social and political stability."

Economists and educators are now paying close attention to these rising figures. Compared with a month ago, the employment rate of college students has increased by 15 percentage points. They believe that this number will be higher after the summer heat.

Last year's statistics gave people an expectation: after experiencing a low tide of about 60% when leaving school, the situation gradually developed in an optimistic direction. By the end of that year, the employment rate of college graduates had climbed to over 80%.

"This is a signal," said Yang Yiyong, deputy director of the Economic Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission. "The initial employment rate is affected by many factors and cannot reflect all the real situation. What matters is the secondary employment rate at the end of the year. "

But even if we can finally turn over this year with a smile, the 2.6 million graduates in 2004 will bring a new employment peak.

"This is a problem that should be faced squarely. There is no need to exaggerate, but it must be taken seriously. " Wen Dongmao said.

150000 and100000.

From 65438 to 0999, China began to expand the enrollment scale of colleges and universities, and the number of college students more than doubled in four years, which was described by foreign media as "a great leap forward in higher education in China".

The positive effect of enrollment expansion on China will take longer to show. But at present, Yuan Feng and millions of China families have to face the pain for some time. Against this background, SARS, which lasted for three months, was just an accident that made things worse.

Employment is difficult, which most people expected before. In a survey conducted by this magazine in April this year, the employment guidance centers of five universities, including beijing university of chemical technology, predicted that the employment situation this year would be "equal to or slightly lower than last year", when SARS just appeared.

Ge of the Career Guidance Center of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications said: "The initial prediction is basically untenable." . Beijing university of chemical technology Employment Guidance Center once predicted that the employment rate would be 85% this year, "slightly decreasing on the basis of roughly the same as last year". But the sudden SARS completely overturned the school's original forecast.

April and May should have been the peak for students to sign contracts on a large scale, but the school was closed, isolated, closed, and the job fair stopped. Only a few bold units came to see you.

Wang Xiaoxu, deputy director of the Employment Service Center of Beilin University, told China Newsweek that the employment rate had reached 50% ~ 60% at this time last year, but this year it was only about 40%. In May, Peking University also reported that the signing rate was lower than last year 10 percentage point.

However, most interviewees believe that the impact of SARS on employment is temporary, and they mainly attribute the difficulties in employment to the rapid expansion of enrollment, the grim employment situation in the whole society, artificial employment obstacles such as hukou and archives, and unreasonable professional settings.

None of these problems can be solved in a short time. Therefore, a key suspense is: how long will the employment tension last?

According to the available data, the enrollment plan of colleges and universities formulated by the Ministry of Education is increasing at the rate of 10% to 30% every year, and 2.6 million college students will graduate next year.

Li Shouxin, director of the Social Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, predicted that there will be 2.6 million graduates in 2004 and 3.2 million in 2005. If the initial employment rate is 70%, 800,000 and/kloc-0,000 college students will be unable to find jobs in these two years. Another figure says that by 20 10, the number of graduates will reach more than 3.5 million.

On the other hand, in the past 10 years, the national employment growth rate was 1. 1%. Yang Yiyong's research shows that the employment growth rate in China will be about1.65,438+0% ~1.3% in the next few years.

China Academy of Social Sciences "Analysis and Forecast of Social Situation in China in 2002-2003" holds that from 200 1 to 2005, China will add more than 8 million workers every year, and the number of jobs to be arranged in cities and towns will reach about 23 million every year, and the gap between supply and demand in the labor market will reach150,000.

Among them, how many rice bowls can be left to us "favored" college students?

Gave up all the hopes of his family.

"I have been working hard for four years. I didn't expect this year's situation to be like this." Yuan Feng complained. Yuan's complaint sounds very touching-this child from a poor family in Tianshui, Gansu, had hoped to find a decent job after graduation and subsidize the huge deficit brought by the university to this family.

Yuan's parents are employees of an old state-owned factory in Tianshui City, Gansu Province, a remote province in western China. Their mother left her job as early as 1993, and each parent earns 160 yuan. It is very difficult to maintain the daily expenses of the family with this little money, and now they still bear the rising college expenses of their son in the past four years.

"I spent nearly 35 thousand yuan on college, which not only exhausted my family's savings for many years, but also borrowed a lot of money." Yuan Feng said with a face of frustration.

Just four years ago, this family was still proud that their children were admitted to universities in Beijing. In China, 520,000 families benefited from the first large-scale enrollment expansion that year. Many parents believe that children can get rid of the identity restrictions of poor areas or agricultural population through the college entrance examination and take a key step towards a new life in big cities.

After the state no longer bears the cost of training college students, going to college becomes a personal investment. According to Ren Dingfan, the former owner of the Employment Guidance Center of China Renmin University, the cost of a college student for four years is about 70,000 to 80,000 yuan, of which the national share is about 1/3.

Forced to postpone employment will undoubtedly affect the expected return of these families. For the one-child families, especially the poor families, this will be a great pressure-in China, many families can say that they have everything for their children to learn.

Perhaps eager to recover his investment in education, Yuan Feng once gave up a job opportunity for a small computer company to accept him as a sales representative.

"The technical content of this position is too low and the salary is very meager." Some introverted Yuan Feng said that the job he wanted to do most was computer programming. "This is consistent with what I have learned, and the salary is relatively high."

However, after the IT industry has experienced a continuous recession, few companies will give opportunities to college graduates who lack work experience.

Say goodbye to your schoolmates who have been with you for many years, and you have to face the rest of your life by yourself. Although he was born in the west, Yuan Feng didn't want to go back to his hometown of birth. "I need to find a job quickly, earn back my living expenses and pay off my debts at home."

He still has not given up hope.

The employment crisis of the intellectual population.

Cen from the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology of Zhejiang University just graduated at the end of June and hurried to Beijing to attend an MBA training class at his own expense. This two-year training course is expensive, "but I think it's worth it," said Cen. "This gave me a chance to change my major."

Continuing to study is a way for many students to postpone their employment.

Cen is still worried about finding a house near his study place, while his classmate Zhou Yichao is anxiously waiting for the court's decision in the detention center in Zhejiang.

On April 2, Zhou Yichao, who had passed the written examination and interview of civil servants in Xiuzhou District, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, learned that his physical examination results did not meet the requirements of local departments and was eliminated. In desperation and anger, he went to the Personnel and Labor Security Bureau of Xiuzhou District on April 3 to stab a staff member who participated in the selection of graduates and stabbed another staff member at the same time.

Since then, 429 students and teachers of Zhou Yichao have jointly written to the court, demanding a lighter punishment for Zhou Yichao. "I signed it, too," said Cen Huidi. On Monday, Chao pinned all her hopes on the civil service exam. In a desperate situation, he made this behavior. We feel very sorry and hope that the court can give him a chance. "

Cen Huidi said that Monday was good at school and got along well with everyone. As soon as he went to college, he decided to apply for civil servants after graduation, so he gave up the opportunity to take the postgraduate entrance examination and went to work in other areas.

It is difficult to find a job for agronomy majors, and the family's economic pressure is very great. Perhaps it is in this case that Monday Chao made an irrational behavior.

According to a statistic of Zhejiang Education Department, there are 96,000 college graduates and graduate students this year, which is 65% higher than last year and nearly 20% higher than the national average.

Monday's cheating is definitely an extreme example under the pressure of employment, but experts who care about the future of college students remind that the social and economic problems brought about by the large-scale unemployment of young college students with higher education can not be ignored.

"The employment crisis of high-knowledge people will not only waste social human resources, but also affect people's enthusiasm for investing in education. More importantly, if a group of young people with active thinking are continuously hit at the critical moment of entering society, it will not only trigger their hostility to society, but also make a lot of excessive behaviors. " Mo Rong, deputy director of the Labor Science Research Institute of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, warned.

"We must be vigilant about this, otherwise the consequences will be extremely serious." Li Qiang, a sociology professor in Tsinghua University, also expressed many people's concerns. (Some graduates should be required to use pseudonyms)

Institutional survey: Who robbed college students of their jobs?

The expansion of enrollment, the SARS disaster, the disharmony between university education and job market, social and relational factors, and the concept of employers are considered to be the five major reasons for the difficulty of college students' employment.

Our reporter/Hu Kui

What caused this unprecedented employment problem for college students?

Recently, China Social Investigation Institute (SSIC) conducted a questionnaire survey on this issue among 2,000 people in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shenyang and Harbin, and authorized China Newsweek to disclose it exclusively.

Among the respondents, fresh graduates accounted for 60%; Parents account for 20%; Public share15%; Enterprise managers account for 5%.

According to the survey, as of June 20, the signing rate of graduate students is about 80%, undergraduate students are about 60%, and junior college students are about 30%.

Another data is that among the more than 654.38+0 million students who have found jobs, only 654.38+03% are satisfied or very satisfied with their upcoming jobs.

The survey found that enrollment expansion (72%), SARS disaster (68%), the disharmony between university education and job market (63%), social and relational factors (58%) and the concept of employers (48%) were considered as the five major reasons for the employment problems of college students.

In an interview with China Newsweek, Li, director of China Institute of Social Studies, said: Under the pressure of employment, college students' outlook on job selection is undergoing tremendous changes.

Five factors leading to the problem

-Short-term impact of enrollment expansion

In just four years, the enrollment rate of school-age youth in colleges and universities in China has reached 15% originally scheduled for 2008. This is a great feat of education, which is of great significance to improve the overall quality of human resources in China. However, 72% of the respondents believe that while the enrollment rate is constantly improving, the cultivation and structural adjustment of China's job market are not synchronized, and the growth of jobs can't keep up with the growth of college enrollment rate, so that the structural contradiction of oversupply in the job market for college students has not changed in the short term, but has been further enlarged, which objectively triggered the employment problem in the first graduation peak year.

-the direct impact of SARS

The SRAS epidemic that ravaged the country for several months had a direct impact on the employment of graduates. 68% of the respondents chose this as their first choice. Generally speaking, April and May are the peak period for college graduates to apply for jobs and sign contracts, and this period is precisely the most serious time of the epidemic. Since April, in areas where universities are concentrated, such as Beijing and Shanghai, large-scale supply-demand meetings have been cancelled one after another, and most employers have temporarily cancelled their recruitment plans, resulting in a decrease in employment information, and graduates have become ants in your pants.

-education and the job market are not coordinated.

63% of the respondents believe that the current university education is quite uncoordinated with the job market. In recent years, the number of college graduates has continued to increase, but the effective demand for talents has been slow or flat. The main reason is that the discipline structure and training mode of higher education are not reasonable. For example, 63% of job vacancies in Guangzhou last year were concentrated in computer, English, accounting and other 12 professional departments, while talents in construction, economic management and marketing were saturated.

-Obstacles caused by social and relational factors

Some social relations within and outside the system have become an unavoidable stumbling block for many college students when they choose their jobs. The rigid hukou system is still a pain in the hearts of many graduates in 2003. When they are full of hope to leave school and go to the social stage, many talents personally feel that it is so difficult to cross this thin piece of paper.

The experience of "not talking about non-local hukou" made 56% of the respondents physically and mentally exhausted. 7 1% of the respondents said they were under pressure on the hukou issue. Among them, girls account for 52%, and they realize that hukou has a great influence on them not only in employment, but also in getting married and having children. Some accounting graduates complain that they have missed many good job opportunities because they don't have a "local hukou", so they have to find another way.

The fierce employment competition also makes many young graduates feel that social relations are everywhere. When answering ability or relationship is more important, students and parents choose the latter, accounting for 53%. 24% of graduates said that they had no connection with their favorite jobs because they didn't have contacts.

-Salary: The gap between expectation and reality is twofold.

There is a big gap between college students and employers on some issues. According to the survey, 67% of enterprises are worried that graduates who are mainly the only child lack the spirit of being practical and willing to work, and 52% of enterprises think that their teamwork spirit is poor and their egoism is serious.

However, college students are obviously unconvinced. Among them, 7 1% think they can bear hardships and stand hard work, and 76% think they can advance and retreat with the team.

The more serious gap between the two sides is reflected in the salary, which may greatly hurt the self-confidence of graduates. 6 1% enterprises think that graduates' salary requirements are high and unrealistic, and they can use this money to recruit an experienced person; And 79% students think their salary requirements are appropriate, which is consistent with their education and ability.

For example, in Guangdong, 67% of employers think that the reasonable salary of junior college students is 1000 yuan to 2,000 yuan per month, and 26% of employers set this figure below 1000 yuan, but more than half of junior college students think that their salary should be 2,000-4,000 yuan. In addition, the expected salary of master students seems to be generally too high: 25% employers set the monthly salary of master students below 3000 yuan, but almost no students agree; 38% of the units set the monthly salary of master students at 3000 ~ 4000 yuan, but only 14% of the students agree with this figure; In addition, more than 50% of the graduate students offered an ideal salary of more than 5,000 yuan, but only 14% of the units were willing to pay this price.

Graduates' mentality: employment comes first, and choosing a job comes last.

Do you want to get a job first or choose a job first? In past surveys, many favored people would say without thinking that they should choose their jobs first. But these days, only people who continue to hold this mentality? Up to 63% people choose to get employment first. This shows that in the face of cruel reality, college students have begun to adjust their mentality.

In order to solve the employment problem, 47% of college students expressed their willingness to give up their major. 29% of college students also expressed their willingness to go to small and medium-sized cities or the western region for development.

The trend of college students after graduation presents the characteristics of diversification and autonomy. The diversification of employment is manifested in employment channels, employment forms and employment processes.

The number of people who choose to study abroad is rising steadily.

The number of graduate students is still increasing substantially, and the number of graduate students has risen sharply within one or two years after graduation. Those who choose to continue their studies after graduate school account for more than 50% of the total number of graduate students. Statistics show that there are 460,000 people taking postgraduate entrance examinations nationwide this year, including more than 260,000 in-service postgraduate entrance examinations, exceeding the number of college students for the first time. Law, MBA and MPA will become popular majors for further study.

Facing the reality of difficult employment, 27% of college students are also prepared to choose self-employment or freelance. According to the survey, only 2% ~ 3% of the students are self-employed and freelance in the past few years, and it is estimated that they will account for 5% ~ 10% in the future.

However, more respondents have reservations or objections to this. They say that self-employment is a good thing, but self-employment is not a slogan. It needs sufficient ability, fighting spirit and financial support. Even if these conditions are met, not everyone will become Zhang Chaoyang and Ding Lei in their twenties and thirties.

Is it a bad thing for college students to find jobs?

"How long will employment difficulties last?" For this problem, 9% of the respondents predicted that it would last 1 year; 4 1% of the respondents indicated that it would last for 2-3 years; 32% of the respondents said that it will last for 3 to 5 years; 18% of the respondents indicated that it would last for more than 5 years. Many interviewees said that the employment problem will be changed before and after the 2008 Olympic Games.

In the survey, 59% of the respondents reasonably stated that the current employment difficulty is an inevitable phenomenon and the society is developing constantly. This problem is not unsolvable.

72% of the respondents even think that the current employment difficulties are not a bad thing. Looking at it from another angle, it is a good thing. Just like the SARS crisis that broke out not long ago, people discovered the problems of China's medical system. The difficulty of college students' employment will also prompt people to discover the connection between China's education system and the job market, thus giving warning to relevant departments and finding a way to solve the problem.

On the whole, although the current employment difficulties of college students are unprecedented, 5 1% of the respondents are full of confidence in the employment situation in the next few years, and only 38% of the respondents are worried. This shows people's confidence in China's economic growth prospects.

Li, director of China Institute of Social Studies, pointed out that China's gross domestic product will double that of 2000 in 20 10, and the gross domestic product will maintain an annual growth rate of at least 7% in the next five years to 10, and every percentage point increase will provide 800 to 100000 jobs. In addition, China's accession to the WTO and the implementation of the strategy of developing the western region will bring more employment opportunities. Therefore, as the elite of1300 million people, the potential employment space for college students is still huge.

Why does the "favored son of heaven" become a social employment burden?

All colleges in China are eager to become universities, all universities are eager to become first-class comprehensive universities, and all students are required to become comprehensive talents as soon as they enter the school gate. This not only makes many teenagers who have no ambition lose the happiness of growing up, but also leads to the so-called "diploma waste"

China Newsweek reporter/Hu Kui

The problem of college students' employment has never attracted the attention of high-level officials in China as it is today.

"We should earnestly do a good job in the employment of college graduates." On June 3rd, Huang Ju, Vice Premier of CPC The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) and the State Council, stressed at a video conference on the employment of college students held in the State Council. Previously, the relevant departments of the State Council issued 1 1 measures to promote the employment of college students.

1 10,000 energetic college students were left out in the talent market as soon as they graduated, and fell into a situation of competing for jobs. In China, which has been worried about the shortage of talents for many years, this fact seems a bit dazzling.

Are there really many college students in China? Has the once-favored child really become the employment burden of society?

10000 what does "college student police" mean?

China's Ministry of Public Security responded positively to the State Council's call. According to official media reports, the public security organs will recruit 10000 policemen from this year's college graduates to make up for the shortage of police force and professionals in grass-roots public security organs.

Police recruits will mainly focus on undergraduate graduates majoring in law, information and communication, traffic engineering and physical chemistry. In addition, the public security department of China also indicated that professionals in finance, computer and forensic medicine are also in urgent need, and they even considered "absorbing a small number of college graduates".

Facing the unprecedented employment problem of college students, this move by the public security department is quite helpful, and it also shows the powerful mobilization power of China Action System.

In fact, in the past, China's police force was mainly composed of police academy graduates, and in some places, the police force was even dominated by junior and senior high school education. The general low education has become the fundamental reason why the overall quality of the police force is difficult to improve.

As early as a few years ago, some people called for the public security department to fundamentally change its image and must make college students account for a sufficient proportion. However, in order to save money, some local police agencies even prefer to recruit less educated security guards instead of regular police posts, rather than actively opening their doors to college students.

On the other hand, most college students who were not worried about finding a job before are reluctant to join the police force.

How big is this potential talent demand gap in China's administrative and social system? -the problem is self-evident: the "talent hunger" in many departments is covered by various tangible and intangible barriers.

Cai, director of the Institute of Population Studies of China Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that nowadays, all departments of the China government are facing functional changes, and the management methods and ways of providing social public services will be increasingly modernized, which urgently requires a large number of college students from various majors to enter. At the same time, college students also need to rethink the employment voices from these departments. Do they need to know?