*The image was generated by Chatgpt-4o
Hot Jobs and Not-so-hot Jobs for the Youth in China
Cindy Sun, 22, a final year student majoring in accounting at Jinan University, started preparing for the Civil Servants Examination in her hometown, Shenyang, last February.
“More students are graduating from universities these years, which makes the labour market extremely competitive,” said Sun. “Being a civil servant is the best choice for me, as it could decrease uncertainty in the future under an economic downturn.”
The number of graduates from universities has doubled in the past 15 years. There will be 12.22 million graduates in 2025, as estimated, which will increase by 3.6% from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Meanwhile, many companies and governments’ positions are only open to fresh graduates. Beijing also provided a tax deduction for those who hired fresh graduates, according to the government’s statement.
“Some companies are taking advantage of the policy to hire fresh graduates at first and lay them off later, and that’s also why I want to be a civil servant to increase the certainty and make good use of my identity as a fresh graduate,” said Sun.
Sun is not alone in making a stable choice for their future jobs, such as being a civil servant or working in state-owned companies.
With more students graduating from universities during the economic downturn, they are more willing to work with certainty to avoid being laid off, although scholars and economists regard it as a problem from an economic perspective.
According to a survey by a Chinese job-seeking platform, Zhaopin.com, in 2024, around half (47.7%) of graduates in China want to work in state-owned companies, and 14.7% of the respondents are willing to work for the government.
Although majoring in accounting has many advantages in the Civil Servants Examination because there are many positions that require accounting students, it remains competitive for Sun to pass the exam.
“Since I only hold a bachelor’s degree, I can only choose the positions under district-level government,” Sun, the graduate, said. “I chose to take the accountant job at Dadong District Market Supervision Administration in Shenyang, but there are still 78 people competing for this position.”
For another job under the taxation bureau in Shenyang, there could be around 200 people for only one position, Sun added.
There are around 3.2 million people registered for the Civil Servants Examination, with a year-on-year increase of 12.9% in 2025. However, only about 10.5% of them can be accepted this year, according to Huatu.com.
The most competitive job is a level one director position at the Chinese Vocational Educational Institute, attracting more than 10,000 candidates for just one position. There is an average of 80 candidates for one job this year, Huatu.com showed.
Besides fresh graduates, people with years of working experience are also keen on stable jobs.
Jiang Weiyu, 30, used to be a drama actor in Hunan, but he was sacked last year because of the unsustainable financial situation of his theatre during the pandemic and decided to prepare for the military-civilian examination.
“It’s a difficult choice for me to leave my favourite industry and give it away for real life,” said Jiang. “I plan to get married to my fiancé next year, so I have to get a more stable source of income than before.”
Jiang (middle) worked as an actor for five years in the 303 drama troupe.
To devote himself to the preparation, Jiang moved back to his parents' house in the same city to reduce living costs and draw on his previous savings and his parents' help.
“I have no other options but to work as a military-civilian as lots of troupes around China went bankrupt during the pandemic with fewer audiences enjoying offline dramas,” Jiang added.
Nonetheless, the recruiting plan from the military this year has not yet been published, so Jiang still does not know whether he has a chance to take the exam. He will continue preparing for the exam if there are no related positions for him this year, according to Jiang.
On the other side, the fierce competition among candidates for civil servants and state-owned companies also pushes employers to set higher standards to pick up talents, which is called “nei juan” or “involutionary competition”.
“Our requirements for candidates are much higher than before,” said Huang Fangzhen, the human resource manager at a state-owned company in Liaoning.
“For example, we only need the candidates to acquire a law-related diploma previously for our legal counsel positions, but we want them to pass the bar examination with years of experience in local law firms,” Huang explained.
Despite the requirements becoming stricter, more people are applying for jobs in Huang’s company.
There were around 10 candidates who applied for one position in the old days, but the number doubled these few years after the pandemic, and it’s extremely hard for new graduates to join the company, according to Huang.
“Our company focused on a falling industry, and many similar companies in economically backward provinces cut the salaries by 40% to 50%,” Huang added. “Although we have some state-owned capitals, we seldom receive aid from the government.”
In the rat race among positions in state-owned companies, some chaos appeared, suspecting whether it was a fair game for all candidates.
In the recruitment plan of Guizhou Tobacco Monopoly Company in 2024, two client manager positions are specifically required for candidates with football and basketball backgrounds.
It soon raised suspicions that the two positions were designed for legacy kids or “Guan Xi Hu”, as the sport-related backgrounds had no relationship with the positions.
Nonetheless, the company responded that the enterprise determined it independently according to the actual needs at that time, according to the state-backed media, The Paper.
With more graduates flocking to municipal bureaucracies, experts are concerned about the economic consequences brought by the situation.
Gary Ng, the senior economist at Natixis, said it is not a good trend for the Chinese economy if the youth keep choosing stable jobs.
“When we look at the model of China, the situation is quite different from other markets that can allocate labour efficiently,” Ng said. “I’m concerned that if there are more young people only caring about job safety and worried about their future, it will bring bad effects to the corporate sectors.”
From an economic perspective, Ng pointed out that the private sector is an important element to consider when talking about employment before the pandemic, with advantageous regulations and policies.
However, state-owned enterprises in China are playing a more decisive role in the Chinese economy, which has pushed young people to join them, Ng added.
Ng’s opinion was consistent with the findings of research from Indiana University in 2024, which shows that the SOEs accounted for a quarter of the Chinese economy as of 2020 and contributed 40% of the market capitalisation and 50% of the revenues of the two stock exchanges in China.
In February, the Chinese Communist Party held its first high-level symposium on the private economy in six years, which signalled a strong expectation for the private sector and boosted confidence, according to the government.
“I think the symposium can help if it allows private firms to grow with an equal playing field; once private firms see better profit growth, they will be willing to invest and employ more people,” said Ng. “However, the question is whether this will really happen from the policy perspective.”
Surprisingly, the promotion law for the private sector, which allows private companies to compete fairly with SOEs in China, wasn’t approved during the two sessions.
Wei Liqun, a professor of management at Hong Kong Baptist University, said that although job choices are based on personal opinions, the traditional thought of “He who excels in study can follow an official career” should be changed with industrial upgrading.
“The Chinese parents have put concessive expectations on their kids,” Wei said. “In the old days, 80% of the university graduates were assigned to the state-owned companies and governments, but the students now can’t enjoy such dividends.”
As China’s economy navigates prolonged uncertainty, Cindy Sun and Jiang Weiyu hedged against instability by having an “iron rice bowl” even as experts warn of long-term costs.
With millions funneling into hypercompetitive state-sector roles, the trend underscores a deepening divide between private-sector dynamism and a youth-led retreat to security, leaving policymakers to reconcile economic ambitions with a workforce increasingly risk-averse.