Beijing, April 9, 2025 – The Europe Today: China has released a set of new guidelines aimed at building a high-quality system of employment services for university graduates, as part of the country’s broader efforts to address rising graduate numbers and ensure sufficient, high-quality employment opportunities.
The policy document, issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, outlines a comprehensive strategy for enhancing employment prospects among college graduates and meeting the growing demands of a competitive labor market.
Key Focus Areas of the Guidelines
The new guidelines focus on six key areas:
- Optimizing higher education training systems to better align with job market needs.
- Strengthening career guidance services to offer better support to students as they transition from academia to the workforce.
- Improving job-market and recruitment systems to make the hiring process more efficient.
- Enhancing support mechanisms for jobseekers facing challenges, ensuring equitable access to opportunities.
- Innovating employment monitoring and evaluation tools to track the effectiveness of employment services.
- Reinforcing supports and safeguards for graduates’ employment, including entrepreneurship and sector-specific talent development.
Aiming for a Nationwide Employment Network
The guidelines set a goal to establish a nationwide employment services network that is inclusive, reliable, and efficient within three to five years. This network will serve as a foundation for helping graduates navigate the job market and secure sustainable employment.
Responding to Growing Graduate Numbers
China’s annual higher education graduate population has exceeded 10 million for three consecutive years since 2022, with projections indicating further increases over the next decade. A senior official from the Ministry of Education emphasized the urgent need to bridge the gap between higher education offerings and the demands of society and the labor market.
To address this, the guidelines propose:
- Creating a centralized talent demand database to match skills with job opportunities.
- Conducting forward-looking analyses of talent supply and demand trends to better align education programs with industry needs.
Encouraging Entrepreneurship and Sector-Specific Talent
In a bid to boost graduate employment, the policy document also calls for:
- Supporting student entrepreneurship to encourage job creation through startups.
- Facilitating the recruitment of urgently needed talent in key sectors by introducing supply-demand alignment programs.
The guidelines also propose dedicated time during academic schedules for students to explore pre-graduation job opportunities, enhancing the transition from study to employment.
Future Graduate Numbers
According to official data, 12.22 million college graduates are expected in 2025, a 430,000 increase compared to the previous year, highlighting the growing challenge of ensuring quality employment for a rising graduate population.
This new policy framework marks a significant step in China’s effort to optimize the employment services for university graduates and tackle the challenges posed by the rapid expansion of its higher education system.
