Nearly 90% of final year university students in China worry about employment prospects and half of the respondents to a recent career survey told a local news-site they are considering delaying their career and pursuing a postgraduate degree.
The news website Youth.cn conducted a questionnaire with final year students from 381 universities across the country. Just under 88% of them were pessimistic about their job prospects, while 12% said fate would take its course, thepaper.cn reported.
The biggest reason for their pessimistic outlook was insufficient experience as interns (close to 71%), followed by a lack of understanding of society (nearly 66%) and lacking skills when hunting for a job (58%).
Meanwhile, more than 70% wanted to start their career in Tier 1 or 2 Chinese cities, and over 80% of students expected a salary of more than 5,000 yuan (US$721). Some 56% expressed a desire to delay their career by going to graduate schools so they could feel more secure and competitive for dream jobs when they have certain postgraduate qualifications.
As for factors affecting their career choices, close to 43% said they were in favor to jobs that could enable their personal development, while 28% said remuneration packages were important, and 10% preferred jobs that match their personal interests.
This suggests that when work is not felt to be satisfactory, youth won’t stay in their job for long. Eight out of 10 graduate employees admitted they would go job hunting and quit when they secured better offers.