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China will face 24 million talent supply gap by 2020

6-18-2013(20)

College graduates are leaving schools at the end of the month, and it is settled that they will face fierce competition. The employment rate of bachelor's graduates is 35%, 12% lower than last year. Meanwhile, the employment rate of master's graduates is 26%, 11% lower that last year.

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A report from Mckinsey pointed out that by the year of 2020, China will need nearly 142 million talented people with high-skills. However, if the labor skills could not be further enhanced, China will face a 24 million talents supply gap. Under pressures, more and more graduates are becoming blue-collar workers.

The employment rate of graduates is declining significantly. According to 2013 Chinese College Graduates Employment Report released recently by Mycos, the employment rate of class 2013 graduates is declining significantly than that of last year. The employment rate of master's degree graduates is 26% and the data is collected from October 29, 2012 to April 10, 2013. The data is 11% lower than that of last year; For bachelor's degree graduates, the employment rate is 35%, 12% lower that last year. The number for higher vocational college graduates is 32%, 13% lower than last year.

Aside from the pressure of the base-7 million, another important reason for employment difficulty is that higher education could not meet the demand of job market. According to the most recent report from McKinsey's, Chinese labor market could not adapt to the rapid increasing of Chinese economy. Firstly, talents with high-skills are squeezing into big cities while there's not enough skilled people in small and medium-sized cities. Secondly, the knowledge demand and the employment structure could not match. At present, the number of college graduates is far beyond the need for talents. While in the future, with the development of the economy and the increasing number of job in the third industry, it will push up the demand for high-skilled talents.

The so-called mismatch between jobs and majors could be seen in Mycos "job board". Employers do favor those majors from colleges listed below: animation, law, biology, mathematics, physical training, English and so on. For vocational colleges, law secretary, computer science, international finance, business administration, Chinese literature education, and E-Commerce are among the bottom for three consecutive years.

Some hot majors are hot because there is more supply than demand. Take computer science for example, it is a hot major, however, the quality of most CS graduates could not meet the need of the industry. Therefore, graduates could not find jobs while companies are seeking skilled talents year after year.

As a matter of fact, it is obvious that we are in a dilemma. According to McKinsey, employers' expectations for graduates and their real performance do not match. 1/3 companies claim that it is hard to find highly skilled persons, while 61% owe it to the limited trainings that graduates have. "There is full of obstacles in the road heading to office work" pointed by Likai Chen, a cofounder of McKinsey. The main reason that many graduates could not live up to the requirements is because there is little communication and connection beween employers, higher education organizations and graduates. Many graduates have no idea in choosing majors and prospects of jobs, which makes it harder for them to find a job successfully.  

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