Economic woes shatter dreams of top graduate students

More than 200 new graduates were “fired before being hired” as China’s largest medical equipment firm Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics abruptly shrank its recruitment plan in December last year, writes He Huifeng for the South China Morning Post.

In an email to the South China Morning Post, Mindray said it had signed tentative employment agreements with 485 new graduates from about 50 universities in China since September. But it decided to terminate 254 of those contracts at the end of December after “an internal review”. Mindray, whose product lines include patient monitoring devices, said the demands of maintaining a sound operation in 2019 were “heavier than in past years” and it had to scale back its student recruitment plans.

An official jobless claims report showed employment in China has been stable, despite the months-long United States-China trade war and stock market volatility. However, an increase in the number of companies announcing hiring freezes and job cuts suggests that in sectors such as hi-tech and finance, the employment picture actually could be much bleaker than official statistics suggest.
Full report on the South China Morning Post site