Steps taken to bolster youth employment

China's central authorities have prioritized the employment of young people, especially new college graduates yet to land jobs, by organizing regular job fairs and creating more grassroots-level vacancies.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said a national employment campaign is taking place from July to December focusing on this year's 10.76 million new college graduates and jobless people under the age of 35.

Under the national campaign, human resources bureaus at all levels are required to collect and provide graduates with employment information and offer them recruitment platforms and other channels to find jobs.

The ministry said that more regular on-site job fairs will be organized during the campaign. For example, those cities with large populations of college graduates should organize a comprehensive job fair every month.

Graduates who have financial difficulties or disabilities will receive additional help in securing internships and professional guidance on job interviews.

In addition to encouraging companies to offer more jobs to the young people, government bodies are also required to step up efforts to expand grassroots recruitment campaigns, said the ministry.

For example, a national drive to recruit grassroots civil servants has been underway since early June. Under the plan, about 34,000 grassroots vacancies in rural and remote areas are offered to job seekers.

"Young people still face employment pressure as vacancies have decreased due to the novel coronavirus epidemic, while there is a gap between the available positions and graduates' employment expectations," said Pang Shi, director of the department of employment and entrepreneurship at the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science.

Chen Lixiang, vice-chairman for the Chinese Society for Technical and Vocational Education, added that the growing number of college graduates and the structural imbalance in the job market are among the major causes of the employment difficulties facing this group, although the economy is displaying good recovery momentum.

He said that it's important for the college graduates to change their perceptions of some professions and what they consider to be suitable employment.

"For example, the manufacturing industry still faces labor shortages, while these young college graduates are unwilling to be factory workers," he said. "The first job matters to every young person, while it is essential to learn and know the industry and the world through the first job. There is no inferiority or nobility when we talk about professions. People achieve decent lives with hard work rather than the job itself."

The ministry said that it will continue to make efforts to develop more suitable jobs for college graduates, and will also improve its supervision of illegal behaviors encroaching on young people's rights, such as unqualified employment agencies, as well as gender and age discrimination.