Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    THIS time every year, millions of Chinese college students graduate in moments of glee and tension. They are joyful, because graduation means the beginning of a new chapter in life. But they also are nervous, because they now must face the first tough test of their lives: hunting for a job.

    The days are long gone when college graduates were regarded as “God’s favored ones,” and could easily secure a job upon graduation because college grads were in short supply. Years of large-scale enrollment expansion, since 1999, have reversed the supply-demand relationship, which in turn has dragged down pay levels for grads. According to the Ministry of Education, 6.99 million students are graduating from Chinese universities in 2013, 190,000 more than last year. This record number of college graduates will certainly bring fiercer competition to job markets. Over the past decade, the number of new graduates from Chinese universities has increased sixfold, to more than 6 million a year, creating a surplus and leaving many fresh graduates without jobs, at least for a while.

    Many graduates are exhausted by attending numerous job fairs and sending out dozens, or even hundreds, of resumes. Some of them are suffering from job-seeking phobia — and perhaps rightly so.

    Besides oversupply, several other factors are contributing to the grim employment situation. Structural imbalance is chief among them. Universities usually lag behind in terms of training talents urgently needed by markets. Students very often choose professions or fields that are very hot when they enter college, but have become obsolete by the time of graduation.

    Rapidly developing technologies create huge amounts of career opportunities, but colleges often fail to create adaptive training programs to meet changing demands. According to a survey, only 30 percent of jobseekers attending job fairs find offered positions matching what they have been trained for.

    But, in my view, one of the biggest hurdles that prevents grads from landing a job is their negative attitude. Surveys indicate that two-thirds of new Chinese graduates prefer to work either in government offices or for big State-owned firms, rather than in private businesses or, even more unlikely, self-employment. Even those who are from families running private businesses have been told since their childhood by their parents to stick with stability instead of risk.

    Everyone knows China is suffering a sharp labor shortage in coastal areas and industrial hubs. Many factories have had to cut down their production capability and even close down because of the shortage. In major cities, domestic helpers are in high demand and their pay levels have been on a steady rise. In fact, a blue-collar worker or a housemaid may earn more than a college grad. But few grads will consider taking such a job, thinking it a shame for them to do such humble work.

    A few brave grads have taken the plunge in chasing their career. A famous story involves Lu Buxuan, a Peking University graduate who chose to make a living as a butcher in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province, in 1999. But he did not stick it out. Sneers and taunts were more than he could bear and, in 2004, he gave up selling meat and obtained a job in the Archives in his hometown. He later called his experience “a disgrace for his alma mater.” But Chen Sheng, another Peking University grad, is running a successful chain of pork stores and feels proud of being a butcher.

    Unlike most other college grads, who would be content with a job in the government, Chen gave up his cushy job in a government agency. He was frank about his motive: he wanted to make more money.

    He started off by selling organic pork, from pigs raised without feeding on harmful forage or using additives that are common on large pig farms. Since opening his first store in Guangzhou in 2008, Chen has expanded to more than 100 outlets in Guangzhou and other cities, with annual revenue exceeding 200 million yuan (US$32.6 million).

    If college grads adopt more flexible and pragmatic postures regarding employment, they will have better chances of success. Another survey speaks volumes.

    Gan Li, an economist at America’s Texas A&M University, surveyed 8,400 households across China in 2011 and found that among Chinese of ages 21 to 25, university graduates had an unemployment rate of 16.4 percent, four times the rate for those who quit school after elementary school.

    A remark by Thomas Jefferson more than 200 years ago is still relevant for the young today: Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.

    (The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer.)