![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/4a1bdd-20250620-a-college-graduate-poses-at-a-job-fair-in-shanghai-named-gao-shengqi-600.jpg\")
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Graduate Gao Shengqi poses at a job fair in Shanghai. He said many employers at the job fair seem to favor candidates with master’s or doctoral degrees.<\/p>\n
Charles Zhang\/Marketplace<\/p>\n
Gao, who is looking for jobs in procurement or inventory management, said he is hoping to make at least 78,000 yuan [$10,500] a year, but the offers he received were 20% less.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would make it hard for me to have a life in Shanghai,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s largest online recruitment platform Zhaopin used to publish reports on average wages firms paid to new hires in key cities. However, Bloomberg first reported that Zhaopin has quietly stopped providing wage data<\/a>. A check by Marketplace confirms the last salary report from Zhaopin was in the third quarter of 2024.<\/p>\n Miao Jiahao graduated with a master\u2019s in law at a different, though equally good, college. Still, he came to Donghua to check out the job fair. Miao said he is looking for a gross salary of at least 96,000 yuan [$13,400].<\/p>\n A securities firm offered Miao half that amount, so he turned the job down. He also rejected a second job offer from a foreign trade company.<\/p>\n Law graduate Miao Jiahao slips out of a job fair to participate in a group interview online in Shanghai. Group interviews are common in China when there are many applicants.<\/p>\n Charles Zhang\/Marketplace<\/p>\n \u201cIt had a lot of negative comments from former staff on social media,\u201d Miao said.<\/p>\n Like many job seekers in China, he began job hunting early, starting last fall.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve applied for over 1,000 jobs. There were not many replies \u2014\u00a0just a dozen or so,\u201d Miao said, adding that he is looking for work in legal affairs. \u201cThere are too many law graduates and not enough suitable jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, he excuses himself to do a job interview.\u00a0Miao goes off to a quiet corner to take the video call on speakerphone.<\/p>\n It is a group interview, which is common in China when there are many applicants. This adds an added layer of competition to the process and allows employers to observe, among other things, how candidates operate under stress. The interviewer gives each applicant 90 seconds to introduce themselves in front of the whole group.<\/p>\n University student Huang Yanhan is not graduating until next year but she is checking out job fairs this spring just to get a head start.<\/p>\n Charles Zhang\/Marketplace<\/p>\n Youth unemployment dropped for the third straight month in May<\/a>, according to China\u2019s national bureau of statistics. However, compared to the same period last year, the youth jobless rate is still slightly higher by 0.7%<\/a>. That has motivated Donghua University\u2019s arts theory major Huang Yanhan to get a head start.<\/p>\n Even though she is not graduating until next year, she is poking around the job fair.<\/p>\n \u201cI am worried because the job market overall is not good. Plus, I\u2019m majoring in liberal arts, so some employers will have higher requirements for us,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n Many employers in China are biased, feeling that liberal arts graduates have few practical skills.<\/p>\n Huang also worries how artificial intelligence might affect her future job prospects. She is planning to work in new media, where AI is already starting to upend the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI use AI in both my studies and daily life. Its ability to analyze and retrieve information is faster and more comprehensive than what humans can do,\u201d Huang said.\u00a0<\/p>\n An advertisement on the Shanghai subway encouraging college graduates to start their own e-commerce businesses using Alibaba’s whole platform 1688.<\/p>\n Charles Zhang\/Marketplace<\/p>\n A bachelor\u2019s degree used to give applicants a competitive edge. It did for Liu Weiyang, who graduated last year in southeast China\u2019s Xiamen city.<\/p>\n At first, he attended a technical college, where he said 70% of his classmates wanted to upgrade their degrees to a bachelor\u2019s degree. Liu followed his classmates.<\/p>\n \u201cI studied animation production in technical college. Then, I majored in marine transportation just to get a bachelor\u2019s degree,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He believes having a bachelor\u2019s gave him an edge over his competitors, even if the jobs were unrelated to his fields of study.<\/p>\n \u201cI [also] looked for jobs which accepted lower education standards, like a technical college diploma. A bachelor\u2019s degree might have given me extra points,\u201d Liu said.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3689ae-20250620-a-graduate-kneels-in-a-quiet-corner-for-an-online-interview-in-shanghai-600.jpg\")
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