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Survey report on the employment situation of recent graduates


Every July, a large number of recent graduates walked out of the school gate and squeezed into the employment of the wooden bridge. In 2006, the number of college graduates reached 4.13 million, an increase of 750,000 from 2005. According to the initial employment rate of 70%, 1.24 million people were unable to achieve current employment during the year. In 2007, college graduates reached 4.95 million.

From December 15th to December 28th, 2007, the Carefree Salary Survey Department conducted a special investigation on the employment of graduates from the HR and the individual. A total of 3,528 individual questionnaires and 225 corporate questionnaires were collected in this survey. Among the individuals who participated in the survey, 58% were newcomers with less than 2 years of work experience and 21% were graduates of 2007.

61% of the 225 companies are wholly foreign-owned enterprises, and secondly private enterprises account for 23%. In terms of personal feedback, there are also more foreign-owned enterprises and private enterprises, but the proportion is quite the same, each accounting for 39%. See the specific distribution information.

figure 1
Further analysis of the personal information involved in the survey, the participants' academic distribution is shown in Figure 2.

figure 2

The survey found that the manufacturing industry has more opportunities for recent graduates, and state-owned enterprises and wholly foreign-owned enterprises are willing to cultivate new people.

The expansion of enrollment in colleges and universities for many years has enabled China's higher education to transform from "elite education" to "mass education." However, these new graduates who are constantly exporting “lack of practical experience” and “high arrogance” are not ready-made talents that enterprises can use with them. Therefore, in most enterprises, the proportion of recent graduates to all employees is very small, and the specific proportion distribution is shown in Figure 3.

image 3
Further analysis of the company sample, we found that the manufacturing industry is a higher proportion of graduates. Of the less than 40 companies with more than 20% of recent graduates, 22 are in the manufacturing industry. As far as the nature of the company is concerned, state-owned enterprises and wholly foreign-owned enterprises are more willing to “cultivate” newcomers, accounting for 74% of these high-producing students, which is higher than the overall distribution of the sample.

Why are companies not willing to hire more graduates? The following are the main concerns of HR when recruiting new graduates. Among them, "long training time" is the most important factor for HRs to decide to hire less graduates.

Figure 4
The survey found that the second year, graduates looking for work, the Internet is the best channel.

There are not many opportunities, and the right recruitment and application path is the key. The survey shows that corporate HR and recent graduates prefer Internet recruitment, followed by targeted campus recruitment. For recent graduates, acquaintances are a way to have fewer opportunities but a higher success rate.

Figure 5
The survey found three, two-way choice: graduates must be "professional counterparts", HR emphasizes "personal ability."

From the school, most of the recent graduates did not have a clear career plan, but they had a clear standard for selecting the first company. For the six main considerations we have listed, recent graduates have made the following choices:


Image 6
"Professional counterparts" are the conditions that have been selected the most, followed by "professional development space", "salary and welfare standards" and "corporate visibility" are also valued by recent graduates. “Industry” and “enterprise development potential” are factors that are less considered. However, when asked, “Is the content of your first job consistent with what you expected before graduation?”, most people answered “very different” and only 7% chose “consistent”.

Is the profession really so important? ! “What we value more is the ability to learn, not the profession. Most of the book knowledge is far from the actual operation. We hope that all employees have the attitude and ability to learn actively and learn from time to time. Competent for more challenging work!” an HR manager in the electronics industry said this during a telephone interview. "Learning ability" is an important part of the "personal ability" that is increasingly valued by enterprises. In addition, there are "adaptation ability", "execution ability", "communication ability", "recognition ability" and so on. As our survey results show, nearly half of HR believes that “personal ability” is the most important factor in their recruitment of recent graduates.

Figure 7
What surprised us most in this survey feedback is that there are so few HRs to choose “graduate school”. Exploring the reasons, I found that many HRs have suffered from the loss of “recruiting schools”. They often complain that students at prestigious schools “have too high self-esteem” and “easy to change jobs”. They also said that after 2 or 3 years of training, the individual's ability is excellent but the average employee is “more practical” and “more willing to work”.

The survey found that the graduates of the recent graduates were "heart-filled" and had a high turnover rate.

“High turnover rate” is also a big concern for HR when recruiting new graduates. "Cultivating these children requires us to invest a long time and a lot of energy. But most of the young people today lack vision. They have been promoted to the portal without being promoted in 1 or 2 years." The number of retired graduates in the next year × 100%" calculated the turnover rate of the graduates of their own companies. Less than half of the companies with a value less than 5%, 27% of the companies have a turnover rate of more than 20%, and more than 30% have reached 18%.

Let's take a look at the information given to us by recent graduates – 56% of the respondents worked in the first company for no more than 12 months, while those who worked in the first company for more than 3 years accounted for only 8%. To understand further why they chose to leave the first company, “no personal development opportunities” and “low salary levels” are the two most important reasons for their job search.

Figure 8
When you hear such a voice, HR may wish to reflect on whether we are not paying attention to these young people. Or you should learn more about some of their development needs and try to create opportunities.

The survey found that the salary of fresh graduates is determined by academic qualifications.

Due to the lack of practical experience of recent graduates, and the potential for development varies greatly. When a company gives a salary to a graduate, academic qualifications are still a regular determinant. Table 1 shows the distribution of the main salary segments of the graduates of all academic qualifications provided by the participating enterprises. Unit: RMB, thousands. The payroll segment contains the starting value.

Table <BR> From the above table, it is not difficult to see that there are significant differences in the salary paid by enterprises for different graduates of academic qualifications. It can be seen that the students who have spent more time in the school have also given recognition. Of course, graduates with different degrees of education also have significant differences in salary expectations.


Figure 9
The expected salary of recent graduates is higher than the actual salary they receive, as shown in Figure 9. The greatest difference between expectations and actual falls is the college degree and master's degree.

The survey found that most of the recent graduates can get a raise after one year.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, and students eventually have to accept realistic salary conditions. However, the survey shows that almost all companies will increase the salary of fresh graduates after one year, the proportion of salary increases of more than 10% is as high as 61%, and 21% of companies have a salary increase of more than 50%. Nearly 30% of companies offer special salary increases for new graduates. In terms of personal feedback, 40% of respondents received more than 10% salary increase after one year, and 15% of them received more than 50% salary increase. The specific data distribution is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10
One year is enough for a full-time graduate to become familiar with his or her job and understand the rules of the workplace, so that department heads and human resources managers can see his own abilities and potentials. Those who work hard and are steadfast will naturally win unanimous praise with their good performance, and the company will certainly pay generously to keep the backbone of the future. One year is really short for a person's career, but this year is especially important for a newcomer in the workplace. Many work habits and problem-solving methods are learned and gradually formed in this year. style. Here, we want to ask those young people who are unsettled to decide not to change jobs because their salary can not meet their expectations. Instead, they should seriously think about what the first job can bring to them.


The new year has begun, and the fast-grading students have begun to work hard for their employment problems. The preparation for the recruitment of corporate HR graduates is basically ready. 2008 is still China's high employment year. Thanks to all the HR and individuals who participated in this survey, I believe that the information in this report can help you to understand some of the practical issues concerning the employment of recent graduates.

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