2024-08-17
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"Once you have paid social security, you are no longer considered a fresh graduate. After weighing the pros and cons, many students choose to remain unemployed." A fresh graduate from a university in Hunan told China Newsweek that the fresh graduate status, which exists to protect fresh graduates' employment, has also influenced students' employment choices to some extent.
Recently, the human resources and social security departments of Shandong, Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other provinces have issued documents to adjust the standards for identifying the identities of recent graduates, and clearly stated that in the recruitment of some units in the province, they will no longer review whether they have work experience and have paid social security.
The standards for relaxing the recognition of fresh graduates vary from province to province. For example, Hunan Province issued a document to clarify that "college graduates" are graduates who graduated within the past three years and did not find a job in the recruitment process (that is, within three years of the year the graduation certificate was signed, including the year of graduation), without any restrictions on whether they have work experience or pay social security.
"Relaxation of the recognition standards for recent graduates will undoubtedly help promote employment of college graduates. Those graduates who have employment experience within two years (or even three years) after graduation can also take the civil service examination as recent graduates, which will broaden the employment options for college graduates." Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, told China Newsweek. He also believes that my country should shift its focus from employment of recent college graduates to employment of all college graduates, creating an equal employment environment for all young people with employment needs.
According to the "University Student Employment Research Report" released by Zhaopin in 2024, the proportion of fresh graduates who are "slow to find employment" has reached 19.1%. In any case, there is good news for fresh graduates who want to find a job but "dare not" to do so.
The maximum certification period is 3 years
There are two types of fresh graduates: fresh graduates of the current year and fresh graduates in the job-hunting period. Fresh graduates of the current year refer to students who are about to graduate or have already graduated in the year they should graduate.
Fresh graduates in the job-hunting period have already received their diplomas, but they received their diplomas during the job-hunting period. The job-hunting period is generally 2 years, but in some areas it is extended to 3 years.
In some companies (especially state-owned enterprises, Fortune 500 companies and Internet giants), fresh graduates have certain advantages in recruitment and civil service and public institution examinations. For example, some companies only recruit fresh graduates in school, and many positions in civil service examinations are only open to fresh graduates. In order to attract talents, some cities will also give fresh graduates policy benefits such as direct settlement.
At the same time, "fresh graduates in the job-hunting period" usually need to meet the following conditions: obtain a graduation certificate; have not signed any form of formal labor contract with any unit during the prescribed job-hunting period and have no social security payment record; and their household registration and files are retained in the original graduation school or talent market.
Therefore, once you have signed a formal labor contract, paid social security, or your household registration, files, or organizational relationship are no longer in the specified institution, you may lose your status as a fresh graduate. At present, there have been some changes in the policy.
In July this year, 11 departments including the Shandong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security issued "Several Measures in Shandong Province to Promote High-Quality and Full Employment of College Graduates and Other Youth".
The document requires that all types of institutions at all levels speed up recruitment and, in principle, complete recruitment before the end of July each year. When announcing recruitment plans, all types of institutions can specify "fresh college graduates of the year" and no longer review whether they have work experience or social security payment status.
Guizhou Province also issued a similar notice, but the recruitment scope was extended to civil servants, public institutions and state-owned enterprises. In addition, Zhejiang Province, Hunan Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Fujian Province and others have made relevant adjustments.
The standards for relaxing the recognition of fresh graduates vary from province to province. In terms of recruitment scope, the adjustments made by Hunan, Guangxi and Shandong are limited to public institutions, while Guizhou includes civil servants, public institutions, state-owned enterprises, etc., and Fujian has also expanded it to central enterprises in Fujian.
In terms of the specific number of years, the recognition standards in Hunan and Guangxi are relatively loose, at 2 to 3 years. Hunan has issued a document to clarify that "college graduates" are graduates who graduated within the past three years and have not been employed in the recruitment process, without restrictions on whether they have work experience or have paid social security.
The proportion of fresh graduates who are slow to find employment has reached 19.1%
Chen Yue, a graduate student at a university in Jiangxi, analyzed to China Newsweek that the adjustment of the identity standards for recent graduates may intensify the "establishment fever", but it is also a good thing for students, as they can prepare for exams while working and avoid having no income.
China News Weekly noted that in addition to the units within the system, some companies have also relaxed the graduation time limit for fresh graduates. For example, Tencent's 2025 campus recruitment targets have been relaxed to January 2024-December 2025. The graduation certificate is used as the basis for mainland China (mainland), and the degree certificate is used as the basis for Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas regions.
The criteria for Alibaba's Taotian Group's 2025 campus recruitment of top talents T-Star have also been relaxed to include graduates graduating between November 2023 and October 2025.
The "College Student Employment Survey Report" released by Zhilian Recruitment in 2024 shows that the proportion of fresh graduates with slow employment has reached 19.1%, compared with 18.9% last year and 15.9% in 2022; a survey conducted by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily showed that 42.8% of the college students interviewed said that the reason for delaying graduation was not for anything else but to retain their status as fresh graduates.
"One of my classmates joined a company in a first-tier city, but was persuaded to leave after the first month. Many people finally felt that the system was more stable," Lin Ling, a graduate of a key university in Hunan, told China Newsweek. In her opinion, the advantage of fresh graduates is mainly reflected in the examination for civil service positions.
Xiong Bingqi said that in recent years, most of the vacancies in civil service examinations have been open to recent graduates, which is considered a positive measure to solve the employment difficulties of recent graduates.
Another background is that in some regions, government departments and public institutions are also ushering in a new round of reforms and adjustments.
In April 2020, Shanxi Province identified the first batch of small counties for pilot reform. Taking Fushan, Hequ and Loufan counties as examples, the number of public institutions was significantly reduced after the reform, with the number of public institutions being streamlined. The number of public institutions in Loufan County was reduced by 88.6%; the number of public institutions in Fushan County was reduced by more than half, and the number of public institutions was reduced by more than 3/4; the number of county-level public institutions in Hequ County was reduced from 179 to 40.
"The number of recruitment vacancies for public institutions is still very limited. The policy seems to be more relaxed, but in fact it is more difficult to pass the exam," said Lin Ling.
Many colleges and universities call on graduates to actively seek employment
Lin Ling chose to find a job directly after graduation. She also wanted to work in the system, but she could not afford the cost of failing to find a job.
In recent years, many colleges and universities have also called on graduates to actively seek employment and establish the employment concept of "getting a job first and then choosing a job". In March this year, Heihe University called on students who have not yet found a job to objectively understand and analyze the current employment situation, reasonably determine their personal employment goals, rationally adjust their employment expectations, establish the concept of "getting a job first and then choosing a job", and make scientific career plans in the "Employment Proposal for the 2024 Graduates".
The proposal also said that we should adhere to the "two-pronged approach" and take the initiative to take the "first step" in job hunting, and not just focus on further studies and civil service exams. According to reports, the number of graduates from ordinary colleges and universities in China in 2024 is expected to reach 11.79 million.
In Xiong Bingqi's view, the job-hunting period policy has become an important factor affecting the job choices of recent graduates. In order to enjoy the policy benefits for recent graduates, some graduates are either eager to find a job instead of choosing a job that suits them, or do not work after graduation. On the other hand, it is not conducive to female university graduates getting married and having children after graduation, because if they choose to get married and have children after graduation, they will be out of the "job-hunting period" when they look for a job afterwards. This also affects the employment of college graduates who have been unemployed for many years after graduation, or those who are looking for a job again.
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, mentioned that the current employment situation has changed. "Not only are new graduates under great pressure, but previous graduates also face employment pressure."
Chu Zhaohui said that strictly distinguishing between current graduates and previous graduates would actually lead to unfair employment. "No matter which type of students they are, there is the question of whether they can find a job."
Xiong Bingqi believes that the label of fresh graduates should be gradually downplayed and the status of fresh graduates should not be emphasized. Instead, attention should be paid to the employment issues of young people, and the personalized development of young people should be recognized and supported. The ability should be considered rather than the time of graduation, so as to create an equal employment competition environment for all young people.
China Newsweek noted that during the 2022 National Two Sessions, Hu Wei, then a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and executive deputy director of the Shanghai China Vocational Education Society, submitted a proposal to cancel restrictions on the identity of recent graduates.
Hu Wei believes that in the short term, the job-hunting period for college graduates can be appropriately extended. Extending the job-hunting period can give college graduates (including female students who give birth after graduation) more time to find a job, and it is also conducive to those who resign (retire) after being employed during the job-hunting period to find employment as fresh graduates.
In the medium term, we should deepen the reform of the employment system for graduates from ordinary colleges and universities, force colleges and universities to pay more attention to improving the quality of talent training, guide college graduates to change their employment concepts, and enhance their own employment competitiveness.
Hu Wei said that in the long run, it is necessary to gradually cancel the policy on job-hunting period for college graduates, break the restrictions on the identity of recent graduates imposed by party and government organs, public institutions and state-owned enterprises on recruitment, and fundamentally reform the outdated employment, further study, labor and personnel policies for recent graduates.
Next month, the 2025 college graduates will start their autumn recruitment. At present, the exact data or estimate of the number of graduates in this year has not been released. However, judging from the continuous growth trend of the number of college graduates in recent years and the number of college entrance examination applicants, the number of college graduates in 2025 is likely to continue to increase.
(Chen Yue and Lin Ling are pseudonyms in this article)
Author: Chen Weijing
Editor: Hu Yun