China's graduates face grim job prospects
Posted: Monday, May 18, 2009 1:24 PM
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Beijing, China
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
Graduation is just a month away and millions of college students in China are expected to hit the streets during what is the country’s tightest job market in decades.
In anticipation of keen competition, most of this year’s 6.1 million graduates have been searching high and low for work the past few months. But they join an estimated two to three million graduates from previous years who still haven’t found jobs.
The graduate glut isn’t simply the result of a slowing economy. It’s the product of increased college enrollment and the expanding number of campuses. In 1998, there were 3.4 million college students in China. Last year, there were just over 20 million.
It’s been a tremendous investment in human capital, as one economist put it, but it hasn’t quite turned out the way the government’s hoped. Aside from unemployment concerns, many students – and prospective employers – complain that the new graduates haven’t got the right training or skills.
And for the millions of parents who save and scrimp to put their child through university, it’s hard for them not to wonder whether it was worth it – would their child have been better off entering the job market straight out of high school?
Click on the video link above to see more of Adrienne Mong's report from Beijing.
