Government attempts to promote employment

In view of the intense employment situation for college graduates, governments at all levels in China have taken a string of measures to create job opportunities.

China is finding new ways to get jobs for the nation's millions of college graduates, as vacancies are getting slashed under the current financial crisis.

A direct way for the government to create jobs is to employ more civil servants. For Chen Zao, if the courts in Chaoyang or Haidian offer her an offer, she will definitely accept it. But this year job seekers on campus greatly outnumber job vacancies in government organizations.

China now has some 6 million civil servants and many government organizations are severely overstaffed. So the admissions quota for government posts is falling year on year.

Another way to create jobs is to boost the recruitment plans of state-owned enterprises. Enterprises controlled by the central government have already acted. Sun Qunyi, a researcher at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission had launched a scheme to double the number of posts offered to college graduates this year.

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China was the first to answer the government's call. It enlarged its original recruitment plan of 5,830 people to 11,660 people. But by the end of January 2009, no other enterprises followed its lead.

Sun Qunyi explained that, even though they are ultimately controlled by the government, state owned enterprises are independent legal entities. As long as the overall economic situation remains grim, they will try to keep their budgets tight. They are unlikely to offer as many jobs as the government expects.

The employment of college graduates is the joint responsibility of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Education. On December 23, 2008, the two ministries, together with other ministries including the Ministry of Finance, published details of 11 schemes to boost employment in a wide range of sectors, including the provision of grass roots public services. The aim was to encourage college graduates to work at the base level of society.

But jobs in grassroots organizations in underdeveloped areas of mid and west China do not fit in with the plans and aspirations of Chen Zao and her peers.