In China, College Graduates Oversaturate Urban Labor Markets

As Chinese university students conclude their studies and prepare to graduate, the Chinese government is struggling to employ them. Ostensibly, this issue prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to a Tianjin job fair on May 15, during which he offered advice and encouragement to undergraduate students preparing to enter China's increasingly tight urban job market. State-owned Xinhua News Agency billed Xi's appearance as yet another sign of his solidarity with the common people.

However, the visit illustrates a persistent and increasingly urgent problem. Beijing is struggling to rebalance the Chinese economy — a strategy that entails moving coastal economies up the value-added chain in hopes of transforming the coast into a consumer base for goods produced in China's industrializing inland provinces. But economic activity is slowing, and these coastal economies are unable to absorb China's growing college-educated labor force, most of whom have little desire to work in low-end manufacturing and even less desire to relocate to the interior.