Higher degree graduates face battle in job market

A college graduate looks at a job listing during a job fair on June 7 in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province. The fair was exclusively for 2014 college graduates. [HU YUANYONG / FOR CHINA DAILY]

NANCHANG - Graduates with higher degrees in China are feeling the pinch in the job market as competitors with lower education levels rise on par and catch up as magnets for employers.

The situation came to the fore following publication of the latest statistics this week showing that by the end of June 2014, vocational school graduates reported the highest employment rate in east China's Jiangxi province, standing at 82.7 percent.

Bachelor's, master's and PhD graduates in the province had employment rates of 80.25 percent, 69.48 percent and 73.5 percent respectively.

Many Chinese students invariably think that a higher degree guarantees better job chances, but those with lower education levels have been bucking the trend in recent years by showing better employment rates in the job market.

Vocational school students in the northeastern province of Jilin reported an employment rate of 84.38 percent in 2013, higher than their counterparts with bachelor's and master's degrees at 83.34 percent and 75.07 percent respectively. Similar trends were reported in the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

Yu Le, a postgraduate who majored in translation at Jiangxi Normal University, has sent her resume countless times online and went to multiple job interviews in the first half of the year.

But the 24-year-old student is now sitting on pins and needles as she has not nailed down a satisfying job pending the university's graduation ceremony this week.

Her friend Li Yi, a vocational school graduate, however, easily snared a contract with a Japanese company for a salesman position.

"My master's degree did not give me much advantage against other job seekers," Yu said. "I wonder if I made the right decision by spending two more years on campus," she told Xinhua.