THE country’s college graduates are flowing into second-tier cities instead of first-tier ones, China Daily reported yesterday.

In 2018, about 37.3 percent of college graduates from other regions chose to work in one of the top 10 second-tier cities, such as Hangzhou, Chengdu, Ningbo and Wuhan, up 9.4 percentage points from 2014, the newspaper said, citing the annual College Graduates’ Employment Report.

The report also said that in 2018, 21 percent of college graduates chose to work in first-tier cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, down 4 percentage points from 2014.

In 2018, 24 percent of college graduates chose to leave first-tier cities after working there for three years, up 6 percentage points from 2014, said the report.

Second-tier cities have rolled out favorable policies to attract university graduates, while living in first-tier cities is becoming less attractive for college graduates due to surging property prices and difficulty in obtaining permanent residence, or hukou, said Wang Boqing, founder of MyCOS, an education consulting and research institute in Beijing.

In order to lure professionals from first-tier cities, second-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Changsha and Shenyang are offering incentives, including relaxed residency permits, subsidies for house and car purchases and home rentals, and cash payments.

Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, issued its most enticing preferential policies ever in July 2017 to help the city retain talent.

The city now gives permanent residence to graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher and promises seven days of free accommodations for graduates who come to Chengdu to look for jobs.

For talents such as high-level researchers and cultural workers in fields listed as national intangible cultural heritages, the city awards subsidies of up to 3,000 yuan (US$434) per person per month for the first three years.

The report, the 11th of its kind, was based on a survey of 303,000 graduates from 30 provincial-level regions.

(Xinhua)