The fear of failure: Youth employment problems in China

• Author: Günter SCHUCHER
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1564-913X.2015.00048.x

International Labour Review, Vol. 156 (2017), No. 1

Copyright © The author 2017

Journal compilation © International Labour Organization 2017

The fear of failure:

Youth employment problems in China

Günter SCHUCHER*

Abstract. Media reports about the employment situation of China’s youth have

been somewhat contradictory. Low unemployment rates coexist with heightened

concern over this issue among China’s leadership and population. The author

addresses that contradiction by investigating the employment situation of young

people in China and demonstrating that they complain about inadequate employ-

ment rather than about unemployment per se. In particular, tertiary education

graduates, who represent approximately half of all the young people entering the

Chinese labour market every year, are concerned about unsatisfying job oppor-

tunities, lower-than-expected starting salaries, and declining chances for upward

mobility.

Media reports regarding the employment situation of China’s youth are

somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, China’s leadership and the

Chinese people seem to be extremely worried about unemployment, particu-

larly youth unemployment (W. Xu, 2015). On the other hand, the country’s of-

cial unemployment rate is relatively low – at 4.09 per cent in 2014 (MOHRSS,

2015a) – and the Chinese people are optimistic about their country’s current

and future economic conditions. Among the emerging markets, China is indeed

the least worried about a lack of employment opportunities (Pew Research

Center, 2014). Although fewer than 50 per cent of Chinese students and gradu-

ates1 are satised with the Government’s employment policy, only 1 per cent

of young people are actually worried that they will not nd a job (Yuan, Hui

and Jianjian, 2013; Zhao, 2013).

In order to understand this apparent contradiction, it is necessary to take

a closer look at the employment situation of young people in China, a topic

* Senior research fellow, GIGA Institute of Asian Studies, email: guenter.schucher@

giga-hamburg.de. An earlier version of this article was presented at the ECPR General Conference

in Glasgow on 6 September 2014. The author would like to thank the participants of “The Polit-

ics of Inequality in Contemporary China” panel and Maria Bondes for their valuable comments.

Responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles rests solely with their authors, and

publication does not constitute an endorsement by the ILO.

1 Unless otherwise indicated, the term “college graduates” refers to all graduates of China’s

colleges and universities.

International Labour Review74

that has been relatively under-researched to date. A larger number of stud-

ies have addressed the employment problems of college graduates2 but stud-

ies about unemployment rarely include an analysis of age cohorts (SWUFE,

2012; Zhang, 2012; Liang, 2013). Besides, unemployment per se is an incom-

plete measure of the actual employment situation: in order to obtain a full

picture of the current state of youth employment, one must also consider

idleness, underemployment, and young people who are over- or underquali-

ed for their employment. While economic inactivity is widely neglected (an

exception being Mei, 2008), a variety of studies have looked at the subject of

atypical employment (F. Xu, 2008; Gong, 2012; Zhou, 2013; Smith and Chan,

2015; Swider, 2015). Yet only Smith and Chan (2015) and Gong (2012) have

explicitly focused on young people. Other studies have dealt with the mental

stress resulting from the employment problems and socio-political attitudes

of China’s youth (Rosen, 2009; Lu, 2012; Kan, 2013; Lian, 2013; Zhao, 2013;

He and Mai, 2015; Szablewicz, 2014).

Since no comprehensive overview of China’s youth employment situ-

ation has yet been provided, this article attempts to ll this gap by analysing

the full range of youth employment dimensions, including not only unemploy-

ment, but also atypical employment, economic inactivity, mismatch and under-

employment. My analysis is based on Chinese data presented in statistics,

data compilations, academic articles and media reports, as well as on inter-

views conducted with labour market experts and ofcials since the late 1980s.

Since the ofcial labour statistics provided by the Chinese Ministry of Labour

(MOHRSS)

3

and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) are incomplete, my data

analysis is mainly based on population surveys administered in 2000, 20 05 and

2010, which cover the entire spectrum of young people (Census, 200 2; Minicen-

sus, 2007; Census, 2012). These sources show that the employment situation of

young people in China is in fact far more complex than the ofcial unemploy-

ment gures suggest. Young people in China complain more about not nding

adequate or desired employment than about unemployment. They often face a

labour market reality that is far different from their expectations. Even when

unemployment is only a minor nuisance, the skills–demand mismatch and in-

adequate jobs can lead to frustration among educated youths.

In the remainder of this article, I start by reviewing the different dimen-

sions of youth employment, namely demographics, unemployment, inactivity,

mismatch, and atypical employment. I then take a closer look at each of these

dimensions in the subsequent parts of the article. Finally, I discuss why it is

that, despite low unemployment rates, college graduates in particular are con-

cerned about their employment prospects.

2

See, for example, MyCOS (2011 and 2014), Li (2012 and 2013), Wang, Guo and Men (2013),

Xiong (2014) and Yue (2014).

3 The abbreviation MOHRSS (Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security) is used

in this article despite the Labour Ministry having changed its ofcial name over time.