Graduates face rapidly changing jobs scene

Bloomberg News 18 June 2016

With a record number of students set to don cap and gown, new research shows that a bachelor degree is no longer the career ticket it once was. That's because of rising competition, fewer opportunities and an economy that's shifting gears from the fast lane to something slower, reports Bloomberg News.

Some 77.4% of those who graduated from university last year found a full-time job, down from 79.2% in 2014 and 80.6% in 2013, according to MyCOS, a Beijing-based research firm focused on higher education. And here's an illustration of China's rapidly ageing population: the number of high-school graduates taking the national entrance examination is edging lower. Some 9.4 million people sat for the gaokao exams this year, a drop of 20,000 from 2015, according to a survey by education portal eol.cn.

That softer landscape is prompting students to either stay at university and pursue higher qualifications, or forge their own careers through start-ups – another sign of changing times. MyCOS estimates that 3% of 2015 graduates started their own companies and 10.1% pursued a higher degree, both up from previous years. That has helped the overall employment rate hold steady in the past three years, the firm said.
Full report on the Bloomberg site

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