China’s graduates are stuck without work as virus eats into jobs

Companies in China are delaying hiring as the virus affects businesses and trade, leaving new job seekers in the lurch.

China coronavirus
As the coronavirus continues to kill more than 2,100 people in China, a growing number of firms have started to lay off workers [File: Stringer via Reuters]

The coronavirus outbreak is denting the prospects of this year’s record 8.7 million-strong Chinese university graduating class, with many students stuck at home just as the corporate recruitment season usually swings into high gear.

Graduates are worrying less about catching the virus than the effect it will have on their careers as company-organised recruiting events on campuses across China are pushed back or cancelled amid nationwide bans on public gatherings to avoid the spread of disease.

“Companies are recruiting fewer people than last year and competition will get even more fierce. I can’t be sure if I’ll be able to find a job,” Di Qingyu, a philosophy student at Nanjing University, told the Reuters news agency via WeChat.

The period after Lunar New Year is normally high season for student job seekers, of whom there are 400,000 more than last year.

With many firms hit hard by a collapse in consumption and shedding workers already, students trying to get their foot on the ladder are bracing for an unusually competitive market. The approaching job hunting season is likely the last time they can secure an offer before graduating in June or July.

The proportion of companies seeking more than 500 new employees fell by more than half after the outbreak to just 2.2 percent, according to a report from Zhaopin, a recruitment website.

There were steep declines in demand for graduate students in particular in the ten days after Lunar New Year compared with a year earlier, according to data compiled by GoguData.

A growing number of firms have started to lay off workers as the epidemic, which has killed more than 2,100 people in mainland China and infected more than 74,000, takes its toll on small-to-medium sized businesses.

One recent graduate, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Reuters her job offer at a tech startup in Beijing was cancelled after someone in the office caught the virus. The company later told her she could join in mid-March but she was not entirely sure if the job would materialise as promised.

A fourth-year student in optics surnamed Huang said he saw positions he had been interested in removed from company websites and he thinks he missed out on other opportunities as firms were not able to come into colleges to recruit.

“I understand,” said Huang, who declined to give his full name because the virus is a sensitive topic in China and he did not want to jeopardise his job prospects.

“I think companies really have no alternative.”

Fewer options

Policymakers have promised to ward off large-scale job losses. But graduates will face a “complex and severe” situation in the first half of this year, Ministry of Education official Wang Hui told a Beijing news conference last week.

Joining the army, volunteering in China’s generally poorer western regions, or entering village-level government are among the career options that will be promoted, said Wang.

Di said she was not interested in any of these options. Asked to work remotely because her company was closed due to the virus, she will soon finish her internship at a media firm and hopes to find something before then.

“Those looking for jobs need to adjust their mindset and prepare for a drawn-out battle,” said one company, Mianbao Qiuzhi, that offers career advice and training services for students in an article posted on its WeChat account.

“As soon as businesses regain their strength, one position will be sure to see a hundred applicants,” it said.

If Huang does not find a job this spring, he plans to try again in the autumn, when there’s usually another round of hiring.

One place he will not be looking for jobs is the catering and entertainment sectors. Both have been hit especially hard by the outbreak.

“As far as I can, I’ll avoid the industries that have struggled to resist the epidemic,” Huang said via WeChat. “I’d worry that other things might happen in the future.”

Source: Reuters