Abstract:

The “Comprehensive Investigation of Employment Situation of College Graduates in China During the Epidemic Period” conducted the second round of surveys in 34 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country for two and a half months from June to August 2021. Compared with the first round of survey in 2020, the following findings were found. (a) Nearly 50 percent of graduates signed a monthly salary of 3,001-5,000 yuan after tax. (b) The overall matching rate of job positions and majors increased significantly. (c) Employment satisfaction remained high but declined slightly, and (d) the rate of considering leaving had increased slightly. In 2021, unemployed graduates felt that the impact of epidemic factors on employment had significantly reduced. Their intentions of employment within the government system were obvious. Those who failed in civil service examinations and higher education had strong willing to retake the examinations. Different from the situation of employed graduates, the “salary package” exceeding the “place of work” became a significant employment factor for unemployed graduates. At the same time, the gap between expected salary and actual salary was widening. The ranking of employment expectations for private enterprises had dropped significantly. In the survey sample, employers’ recruitment plans were shrinking, but rates were rising. The salary levels were increasing, as well as the recruitment standards. The satisfaction of college graduates with the employment guidance work of the college remained good, which was the same as in 2020. Through logistic regression analysis, it was found that the variables include gender, household registration, family economic status, school type, school level, subject type, subject level, personal education, academic performance, entrepreneurial willingness etc., had significant differences in the impact of different categories on employment. The same as in 2020, men have a significant employment advantage over women. This employment advantage existed in the comparison of economically non-difficult families with economically difficult families as well. Meanwhile, employment advantage was showed in the comparative between colleges of science and engineering and finance and agriculture and forestry colleges, national "Double Tops" universities and higher vocational college, humanities and social sciences, national double first-class disciplines and ordinary disciplines, master’s degrees and bachelor’s degrees. The graduates from top 20 percent of professional rankings had more advantage than the 20-60 percent and bottom 40 percent graduates. Difference from 2020, the findings show that rural household registration graduates have a higher employment probability than urban household registration graduates, current graduates from medical colleges and normal colleges had a higher employment probability than colleges of science and engineering graduates, the employment probability of undergraduate graduates was lower than that of college graduates, and the employment probability of agricultural medicine was higher than that of humanities.

Key words: COVID-19, new graduates of universities and colleges, employing unit, employment, empirical research