Job seekers' aspirations collide with market realities
毕业生就业困境 理想与现实脱节
Each year, this is the time hundreds of thousands of soon to be college graduates begin their hunt for a dream job. Job fairs are held in quick succession and many kinds of jobs are offered. But for most graduates, the market just doesn’t satisfy their dreams and aspirations.
Working in a state owned enterprise or a foreign company. That’s the first choice for most college graduates. But this isn’t easy to achieve.
"I don’t want to do jobs like telephone follow-up or sales. A middle school student can do that. I’m a college graduate and I want to have a higher starting point." a college graduate said.
Graduates with higher demands leave some small and medium-sized enterprises in a dilemma.
Compared to state owned enterprises, they provide a lesser standard of employment but reasonably good salary. However, this fails to draw in the talent.
"Our company is based on sales and production. Most graduates do not want to work on the production line. They think that since they’ve spent four years of learning, the heavy workload is not for them." Liang Juntian, Hr Director of Wanhuihaoran Electronics said.
According to domestic recruitment website, 51job.com, jobs in sales, administration and service sectors are not very high skilled. Therefore, more than 80% of graduates think they cannot use what they’ve learnt and have no future, if working in those fields.
"When looking for jobs, graduates value room for growth and promotion more than enterprises can offer. While enterprises need people who meet the needs for the positions they have advertised. This causes a dilemma for both sides." Lu Lun, Employment Guidance CTR Director of Xi'an Univ. of Finance and Econ. said.
It however is a dilemma that has no easy answers. Especially for a country like China, that needs skilled manpower in its various sectors for sustained economic growth.