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MMUNITY NEWS
Job Preferences and
Employment Outcomes
of China’s College By SCCEI China Brief
• Despite non-state enterprises dominating China’s labor market, survey analysis
of over 40,000 graduating college students reveals that 64% of students desire
employment in the state sector.
• The strong preference for state sector jobs persists over time despite state
sector corruption crackdowns since 2012 and significant declines in formal public
sector positions.
• State sector employment is highly competitive: among students seeking work in the
state sector, only 51% actually received job offers from public employers.
• Male students, urban residents, elite university graduates, CCP members, students with
strong standardized test scores, those from higher-income families, and students with
college-educated or CCP cadre parents, as well as those with social connections to the
state sector, were more likely to find state sector jobs.
Non-state enterprises employed the vast college students on a wide range of characteristics
majority of all urban workers in China in the including their desired jobs, job search behaviors,
2010s. Nevertheless, over half of China’s workers and best job offers, as well as their educational
with college degrees were employed by the state and demographic data, such as their standardized
sector, suggesting that state sector jobs exert test scores, activities in college, and their
a strong pull in attracting college graduates. As socioeconomic characteristics.
China’s workforce becomes increasingly educated,
job preferences of the college-educated will play a College students prefer state
crucial role in the allocation of China’s most highly sector jobs. Although an overwhelming
skilled labor and, consequently, its economy. This
research highlights the employment preferences majority of the Chinese labor force was employed
and job opportunities presented to China's college- in the private sector in the 2010s, 64% of college
educated workers in state and private sectors. students in the sample seeking jobs between 2010
and 2015, on average, still aspired to work in the
The data. This study utilizes data from state sector. Moreover, despite the government’s
sweeping anti-corruption campaign initiated
the Chinese College Student Survey, which was in 2012, which resulted in significant cuts to
conducted annually by the China Data Center at employment benefits for state sector employees,
Tsinghua University between 2010 and 2015. The students nevertheless maintained a consistent
sampling method involved a random selection of preference for state sector jobs. After peaking in
100 colleges from a list of 2,300 colleges in China, 2012 (at 66% of all students), student interest in
stratified by geographical regions and college jobs within the state sector remained consistently
tiers to ensure that different types of colleges strong, and in the years following 2013,
were represented. Each college was also weighted interest in Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and
by its student population, making the sample government office jobs as well as jobs in state-
representative of the population of all college owned enterprises (SOEs) gradually returned to
students in China. In the end, the research team levels similar to those before the anti-corruption
surveyed a sample of over 40,000 graduating campaign. Despite the year-to-year fluctuations,
25 AMCHAM SOUTH CHINA
Job Preferences and
Employment Outcomes
of China’s College By SCCEI China Brief
• Despite non-state enterprises dominating China’s labor market, survey analysis
of over 40,000 graduating college students reveals that 64% of students desire
employment in the state sector.
• The strong preference for state sector jobs persists over time despite state
sector corruption crackdowns since 2012 and significant declines in formal public
sector positions.
• State sector employment is highly competitive: among students seeking work in the
state sector, only 51% actually received job offers from public employers.
• Male students, urban residents, elite university graduates, CCP members, students with
strong standardized test scores, those from higher-income families, and students with
college-educated or CCP cadre parents, as well as those with social connections to the
state sector, were more likely to find state sector jobs.
Non-state enterprises employed the vast college students on a wide range of characteristics
majority of all urban workers in China in the including their desired jobs, job search behaviors,
2010s. Nevertheless, over half of China’s workers and best job offers, as well as their educational
with college degrees were employed by the state and demographic data, such as their standardized
sector, suggesting that state sector jobs exert test scores, activities in college, and their
a strong pull in attracting college graduates. As socioeconomic characteristics.
China’s workforce becomes increasingly educated,
job preferences of the college-educated will play a College students prefer state
crucial role in the allocation of China’s most highly sector jobs. Although an overwhelming
skilled labor and, consequently, its economy. This
research highlights the employment preferences majority of the Chinese labor force was employed
and job opportunities presented to China's college- in the private sector in the 2010s, 64% of college
educated workers in state and private sectors. students in the sample seeking jobs between 2010
and 2015, on average, still aspired to work in the
The data. This study utilizes data from state sector. Moreover, despite the government’s
sweeping anti-corruption campaign initiated
the Chinese College Student Survey, which was in 2012, which resulted in significant cuts to
conducted annually by the China Data Center at employment benefits for state sector employees,
Tsinghua University between 2010 and 2015. The students nevertheless maintained a consistent
sampling method involved a random selection of preference for state sector jobs. After peaking in
100 colleges from a list of 2,300 colleges in China, 2012 (at 66% of all students), student interest in
stratified by geographical regions and college jobs within the state sector remained consistently
tiers to ensure that different types of colleges strong, and in the years following 2013,
were represented. Each college was also weighted interest in Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and
by its student population, making the sample government office jobs as well as jobs in state-
representative of the population of all college owned enterprises (SOEs) gradually returned to
students in China. In the end, the research team levels similar to those before the anti-corruption
surveyed a sample of over 40,000 graduating campaign. Despite the year-to-year fluctuations,
25 AMCHAM SOUTH CHINA
