China is stepping up efforts to lower its unemployment rate with
an aim to keep the registered urban jobless rate below 5 percent in
the next five years, with additional 45 million people being
employed, Minister of Labor and Social Security Tian Chengping
said.
However, the unemployment rate among people who have received
higher education has been rising.
In Nanjing, the capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, the
total registered unemployment rate has risen to 4.03 percent, down
0.15 percentage point year-on-year. Among those unemployed, 8.049
percent or 12 percent received three to four years of college
education, according to Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Labor and
Social Security.
Of the 8.049 percent unemployed, some majored in law, finance,
marketing and other popular specialties, the municipal government
confirmed.
In the of Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province, about
2,870 college graduates could not find jobs in 2000, but in 2001,
the number has risen to 3,157, or 12.34 percent of the total, the
sources with Shenzhen municipal government said.
Compared with the well-educated jobless, skilled workers or
technicians can easily to find jobs, sources said.
The reemployment rate is only 20 percent for those with college
and university diplomas but as high as 75 percent for other jobless
groups, sources with the Shenzhen city government said.
Experts say that college students are fastidious but
incompetent.
Many of them have acknowledged that college diploma does not
guarantee stable jobs, suggesting college graduates make some
adaptations when choosing jobs.
"College graduates usually demand better salaries and working
environments," said Yu Huihong, director of Shenzhen Municipal
Labor Bureau. "But most lack practical knowledge or skills and
sometimes what they learn at school cannot be used at their job
posts."
With the development of a market economy, employers have
gradually attached importance to skills and competence instead of
diplomas, he noted.
Textbooks for college and university students complied during
1970's have not been updated.
Yu urged education departments to adapt textbooks and teaching
methods to China's evolving market economy.
China's expansion of university enrollment does not mean the
government has also enlarged its job market, insiders said,
underscoring that the unemployment rate of well-educated people is
bound to increase.
(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2005)