Editor's note: According to data released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, my country's college graduates in 2023 will reach 11.58 million, reaching new highs in scale and growth. Faced with fierce competition for employment, college graduates may be facing the most stressful graduation season in history. On July 6, Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng said at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that the number of college graduates this year increased by 8 percentage points compared with the same period last year. Judging from the data on July 2, the current employment rate is 2-3 percentage points higher than the same period. Regarding the employment of college students, we must take active actions, create conditions, and provide support for college graduates. We are currently in a critical employment period for young people. What mismatches exist between supply and demand in the job market? How to solve it? Are there any other good ways to improve the youth employment rate?
Professional counterparts are the direction of colleges and universities’ efforts
Li Changan
Relevant surveys have found that nearly half of young employed people face professional difficulties, and more than one-third of young employed people have majors that are not relevant to their positions. This "professional mismatch" phenomenon not only causes a waste of human capital, but also hinders the job search process and subsequent career development. At present, my country's youth unemployment rate is higher than the national average unemployment rate, and structural unemployment caused by college students' mismatched majors is one of the main reasons.
The main reason for the mismatch of majors among college graduates is that there is an obvious structural contradiction between the major settings of my country's universities and the market's employment needs. The speed of major adjustment in universities cannot keep up with the rapid changes in the new economy and new business formats. With the development of the Internet economy and digital economy, emerging domestic industries and business models continue to emerge, and the demand for cross-field employment, diversified, and compound talents continues to rise. But relatively speaking, the adjustment of majors in colleges and universities is much slower. In addition, many college students lack career planning during their studies, and only passively accept their choice of major, without understanding the market demand. The employment pressure forces some college students to choose jobs that have nothing to do with their majors. Many graduates have the mentality of "employ first and then choose a career" and have no choice but to accept that their majors are not suitable.
Therefore, to solve the problem of mismatched majors among college graduates, the following measures should be considered:
First of all, on the basis of distinguishing the nature of colleges and universities, we must strengthen the scientific nature and market orientation of professional settings. Except for some universities that focus on scientific research and majors that focus on basic theoretical research, most universities and majors must emphasize a high degree of integration with the market. In terms of professional setting, we highlight "market integration and professional counterpart", be market-oriented, cultivate talents urgently needed by the market, and adapt to the urgent need for new talents in the new technological revolution.
Secondly, build a macro-control mechanism for the disciplines and majors of colleges and universities, expand the autonomy of setting up disciplines and majors in colleges and universities, and form a self-development and self-adjusted professional management mechanism for colleges and universities to actively adapt to the needs of economic and social changes. Macroeconomic control focuses on principles and guidance, and improves the autonomy of colleges and universities in adjusting majors. At the same time, a professional early warning and exit mechanism will be established. For majors that are on the warning list, some enrollment plans will be reduced. Enhance the flexibility of on-campus major adjustment for college students, increase the proportion and amount of major adjustment, and meet the needs of more students for their favorite majors.
Thirdly, we must pay close attention to the mismatch of majors between graduates from non-"double first-class" universities and higher vocational colleges. The phenomenon of mismatched majors is more prominent among graduates from non-"double first-class" universities and higher vocational colleges, which also highlights the reality that it is more difficult for this group to find employment and that majors are mismatched. We should pay attention to the balanced allocation of educational resources, promote school-enterprise cooperation and order-based training, create distinctive majors, and adapt to new social needs.
Finally, we must strengthen career planning for college students. Establish a systematic and standardized career planning guidance course system for college students, vigorously promote the concept of career planning, improve college students' understanding of majors, and train college students' job search abilities. All colleges and universities should establish career planning consulting rooms and strengthen personalized guidance. At the same time, the career assessment system is introduced and applied to help students understand their career interests, abilities, tendencies, etc., and effectively enhance the employment adaptability of college students. (The author is a researcher at the National Institute for Opening up, University of International Business and Economics)
The market should reduce the difficulty of “search” matching
Zhang Chenggang
Currently, our country's economy is in the process of industrial transformation and upgrading. Uncertainty factors such as technological progress and market changes have increased, which has led to an increase in the time cost of youth employment and career selection. The author believes that the above phenomenon reflects the "search matching" problem in the labor market. It should be paid attention to, the causes should be found, and effective solutions should be formed.
In the career search theory of the labor market, the acquisition of market information is asymmetric. In order to obtain a job with satisfactory remuneration, workers must spend time and experience searching in the labor market. The longer it takes, the greater the likelihood of finding a satisfying job with higher pay. At present, the time and energy costs for young people to choose and find a job are constantly increasing, which shows that the difficulty of "searching and matching" is increasing. The following reasons can be considered.
First, it is increasingly difficult to match supply and demand. In the stage of rapid industrial transformation, the skills, experience and expectations of workers do not fully match the needs of recruiting companies. Enterprises at the forefront of the industry cannot obtain workers with direct job skills from the education department, so they can only select young people with potential and strong learning ability for training. This results in higher search costs for enterprises and young workers spending more time and energy looking for jobs. Both the supply and demand sides will spend more time and cost, resulting in increased employment difficulties.
Second, information asymmetry has intensified. There are differences in information acquisition and transmission between workers and recruiting companies. New business forms, new models, and new industries are constantly emerging, and information about jobs and career development paths is no longer as clear as in traditional industries. Young workers need to spend more time and energy searching, filtering and understanding job information. A considerable number of workers lack information channels and can only blindly follow public choices or make simple judgments based on credulous online information. This is also one of the reasons for the popularity of compilation and public examinations. On the contrary, few people know about some cutting-edge new occupations, making it difficult to recruit workers.
Third, there is a mismatch between the expectations of young workers and their employment conditions. Job search theory also suggests that the search process in unemployment is an investment in finding a well-paying job. This also explains why in European and American countries, the level of unemployment benefit protection is positively correlated with the changing trend of the number of unemployed people. Under the premise that the pressure is controllable, unemployed people will spend longer searching for jobs with higher salaries and better matches with individual development goals. In Chinese society, with the improvement of education level and changes in employment concepts, young workers may have higher expectations and requirements for work, and even hope that their first job after graduation can be obtained in one step, ignoring the process of skill learning and experience accumulation in the early stages of their careers. Behind this expectation is also the support and expectations from the family, which will even help to digest the time cost and financial pressure of young people looking for a job and choosing a career.
In a rapidly changing market environment such as industrial transformation and upgrading, efforts should be made to reduce the difficulty of job search and matching between enterprises and young workers. First of all, it is necessary to continuously strengthen the construction and publicity of new business formats and new occupations, so that young people can fully understand the skill requirements and development prospects of new occupations. The release of new occupations and the construction of new occupational skill levels should be accelerated to allow more emerging occupations to enter the National Occupational Classification Ceremony.
Second, strengthen employment education and help college graduates find accurate employment positions and establish employment goals as soon as possible. Employment education should be strengthened, and young workers should be cultivated with correct employment values and clear career development paths through career planning and employment guidance education, contact and cooperation with enterprises, and organizing exchanges between students, alumni and industry practitioners.
Third, strengthen the linkage between education, training, etc. and industrial development, and promote the introduction of labor into education and the integration of industry and education. By establishing strategic partnerships with enterprises, colleges and universities can better understand industry development trends and needs, adjust and optimize professional settings, and ensure that educational content matches actual work needs. By cooperating with enterprises to carry out practical teaching projects, it can increase college students' understanding of the applied practice of their majors, guide students to actively face market demand, and increase the skills needed to adapt to the profession. (The author is an associate professor at the School of Labor Economics at Capital University of Economics and Business and director of the China New Employment Form Research Center)
The current employment situation should be viewed objectively
Pang Shi
The issue of youth unemployment in our country this year needs to be viewed comprehensively and objectively.
On the one hand, due to factors such as high total supply and the intensification of cyclical, structural and frictional unemployment problems, my country's youth unemployment rate has indeed increased, and we must face up to this problem. On the other hand, youth employment is a common problem facing the world. The youth unemployment rate is higher than the overall unemployment rate, usually 2-3 times the overall unemployment rate, and is a common phenomenon in countries around the world. In recent years, affected by the turbulent international situation, the COVID-19 epidemic, technological changes, industrial adjustments and other factors, young people have faced more significant employment pressure, and the average global youth unemployment rate is generally higher than before. The International Labor Organization's "Global Youth Employment Trends 2022" report states that the total number of unemployed youth worldwide is expected to reach 73 million in 2022, 6 million higher than the pre-epidemic level in 2019.
From a domestic macro perspective, the labor force aged 25-59 accounts for a larger proportion of the 460 million urban employed population, and the unemployment rate continues to decline. The unemployment rate of the labor force aged 25-59 was 4.1% in May, 0.4 percentage points lower than the same period in 2019 before the epidemic, reflecting the overall improvement in my country's employment situation.
Compared with the world, youth employment in my country faces both global common problems and special difficulties at specific stages of development. There are not only direct impacts of the economic cycle on the labor market, but also structural reasons for matching youth human capital with market demand, as well as factors related to the youth group’s own employment mentality and choices.
For example, young people’s willingness to choose a career is misaligned with market demand. Most young people still choose jobs in big cities, large units, and large factories. State-owned enterprises, government agencies, and institutions are still the first choice. Enterprises report that many graduates want to wait until the results of further studies, compilation examinations, and public examinations are announced before trying to find a job, but this conflicts with the company's "spring recruitment" time. In fact, 80% of the job demand comes from private enterprises, and private enterprises still have the problem of "difficulty in recruiting workers".
In addition, the combination of information overload and public opinion hype has also led to an increase in job search anxiety. When young people seek employment, they are either trapped in an information cocoon or drowning in an ocean of information. However, a large amount of credible job information has not been disseminated in a way acceptable to Generation Z youth. Finding a suitable position is like "looking for a needle in a haystack", and the screening and matching efficiency is low. At the same time, the issue of youth employment has been amplified by Internet public opinion and certain institutions, which has also affected the employment values of some young people and reduced their confidence and desire for employment.
The core of solving the youth employment problem is to develop the economy to create employment opportunities and improve the stability of employment adaptability. Private enterprises with large scale and wide coverage are an important foundation for stabilizing the economy and an important force for expanding employment. We can continue to make good use of policy "gift packages" and sufficient service "tools" to encourage all parties to actively create jobs and give full play to the role of private enterprises in absorbing employment. We should continue to promote the connection between supply and demand of private enterprises and college graduates. Through the "Private Enterprises and Universities Join Hands to Promote Employment Action", a series of online and offline employment services such as Private Enterprise Service Month and Hundreds of Days Online Recruitment, we have extensively collected and summarized information on private enterprises' job demand plans and other information to further resolve the information asymmetry between college graduates and private enterprises, which not only broadens employment channels for college graduates, but also provides private enterprises with all types of talents they desperately need. (Director and researcher of the Employment, Entrepreneurship and Policy Evaluation Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Sciences)
