‘Rustification’ revival to create jobs, reverse brain drain
In an ambitious drive to increase access to higher education, China’s college and university enrolment increased from around six million in 1998 to 21 million in 2005. But with the flood of new graduates, individuals are having a tough time finding jobs in an increasingly competitive labour market. Li Mu (李沐) reports on government interventions designed to alleviate graduate unemployment by encouraging young job seekers to "Go west, go down to where motherland and people are in greatest need."
"I want to stay in Beijing, and get this complex feeling about going back home," admits Xiong Fengyang (熊风扬), a student from a rural area who recently graduated from a university in Beijing.
Ashamed of failing the entrance exam for graduate school, which required a year’s preparation and coincides with the peak recruiting season, Xiong found himself left with meagre job opportunities after the considerable investment of obtaining his Bachelor’s degree.
So earlier this year he joined the queue to apply for a government post as a rural administrative assistant.
In 2006, Beijing’s municipal government started to offer competitive packages to graduates signing three-year contracts as administrative assistants in the municipality’s rural areas. This was in response to a 2005 State Council circular that stressed the importance of creating opportunities for graduates to “go down” to counties and villages as part of the solution to unemployment. Other provinces have followed suit with their own rural job creation schemes for graduates.
Beijing municipality plans to employ 8,000 graduates within three years. These “village officials” will enjoy an average starting salary of CNY 2,000 per month—higher than the starting wage of Beijing city civil servants and higher than the average graduate wage as estimated by Beijing Labor and Social Security Bureau—and it can rise to some CNY 3,000 in the third year. The job also comes with hukou registration, the legal status granting Beijing citizens privileges that are coveted by outsiders. And they are promised preferential treatment in civil servant tests and graduate school entrance exams after three years’ service.
These incentives are offered to assuage growing pains in the job market after the first batch of students from expanded college enrolment graduated in 2003. The supply of college graduates is calculated to be growing by 16 percent in Beijing annually, far exceeding the growth of white collar jobs.
Not keen to go
Yet according to a survey conducted by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, more than 60% of graduates reject the idea of taking a job in less developed rural and western areas even if they are not offered employment in the nation’s capital.
It is unclear what effect the rural service scheme will have on long-term employment trends, according to the Observer Group (中央财经大学守望者实践小分队), a student group that conducted field research in 22 villages of Beijing’s outlying Pingu District(平谷区). The group’s findings, published in China Reform Daily (which is affiliated to the powerful National Development and Reform Commission), suggest that much of the work done by graduate rural administrators is routine paperwork, and that villagers perceive this as having limited impact.
“I think that’s hardly surprising if graduates are placed to do minor jobs. They hardly know what the villages they are serving actually need, and what they learned in school may not be helpful,” says Chen Linsong (陈林松), a Beijing-born software engineering graduate. He feels that ICT is what villages need most, and that he would be able to do some “real work” such as providing computer skills training and website building, to boost efficiency and communication.
One graduate rural official, who prefers not to be named, says that he decided to break his service contract, because he wanted better job prospects and more income for his family. “Despite everything, government policies are very vague about the placement of these 8,000 people. Even if I can get to work as village head, I won’t be satisfied with a monthly salary of about CNY 1,500 out of their village budget. The experience won’t necessarily be helpful in the tougher job market three years later,” he says.
Despite these doubts, big cities like Beijing can offer rural and township opportunities that are more attractive than other places in China. There are now six applicants for each job in Beijing’s rural areas, according to a report in The Beijing Daily.
In less developed areas, students can get stranded in “Go down” projects because of a scarcity in local job openings. The China Youth Daily has reported that some graduates have worked for years in villages of Hainan, China’s most southerly province, but that their wages are much lower than general civil servant level. Despite the province’s promises of preferential employment policies, the newspaper says, these graduates cannot get jobs they want in local government and institutions even after two years of service.
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