Graduates pick study over job market

By Wang Wen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-30 10:28

More than 30 percent of college graduates choose postgraduate study over job hunting because they believe looking for work is too difficult, a study shows.

Zhang Xiaochu, director of Haidian human resource service center, said 33.7 percent of the 2,641 college students surveyed said they would study for a higher degree, including 8.58 percent of respondents who want to study abroad.

He said the employment situation remains challenging because of the financial crisis, intense competition and the gap between employers' expectations and the capability of graduates.

The Beijing municipal education commission said last week that there were about 209,000 university graduates in Beijing in 2009 and more than 10,000 graduates have still not found a job.

These people will continue to fight for jobs against 219,000 fresh graduates in 2010, making job hunting even more intense.

"We can not find satisfactory jobs and so many classmates of mine choose to study further," said Cui Yan, who graduated from Capital University of Economics and Business in the summer of 2009.

He said 10 out of the 34 people in his class who did not find jobs immediately are planning to study further.

Cui was employed at a public relations agency in July but quit because he thought the job was too hard and the wage too low. He said many of his classmates had similar wage expectations.

"I think our mentality has a little problem," Cui said.

He said they cannot put up with the busy work and are not satisfied with their salary.

The report from Zhang's center also found employers need employees who can work independently as soon as possible, but the biggest problems graduates face is a lack of experience.

The Haidian human resource service center and the Renmin University of China conducted the survey in July.

As many as 3,275 questionnaires were sent out to 36 colleges in Beijing and 2,641 effective replies were collected, about 70 percent of who will graduate in 2010.