Secure Jobs, Uncertain Future: China’s Growing Appetite for Government Employment

Last year, I attended a luncheon for graduates and their parents from a prestigious Chinese university. At the table, I asked three parents about their children's career aspirations. To my surprise, two out of three replied with “考公” (kao gong)—indicating their children’s intention to take government civil service exams and enter the public sector.

This sentiment is far from isolated. As I recently highlighted in a South China Morning Post opinion piece, the appeal of public sector employment in China has reached its highest level in recent decades. The proportion of new graduates preferring state-owned enterprises, government agencies, or public institutions has surged by 22 percentage points, from 51 percent in 2019 to 73 percent in 2024. Conversely, interest in foreign-funded firms and private enterprises has plummeted by a similar margin, from 46 percent to 26 percent.

This shift is not merely a matter of changing preferences; it reflects profound economic and social changes in China. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted service industries, traditionally major employers of young people. Coupled with increasing regulatory burdens, especially in high-tech industries, these factors—against the background of economic downturn—have contributed to a record-high youth unemployment rate, which peaked at over 21 percent in 2023. In January 2024, the government released revised youth employment data, excluding students, which showed a decrease to 14.9 percent for December 2023. Even with this revised figure, the youth unemployment rate remains alarmingly high—approximately three times the overall unemployment rate in China (5.1 percent).

In response to the sluggish economy, a significant number of college students are postponing their entry into the job market by pursuing postgraduate studies. My alma mater, Fudan University, provides a stark example of this trend: among 3,226 undergraduate students who graduated in 2023, only 583 entered direct employment—a mere 18.7 percent of the cohort. Strikingly, the proportion of Fudan students opting to pursue an advanced degree in Chinese universities reached 53 percent, 10 percentage points higher than in 2019. Data from prestigious universities like Tsinghua and Beida corroborate this pattern. Indeed, multiple universities have announced plans to extend the duration of graduate programs for certain majors to alleviate immediate employment pressure.

However, whether graduate or undergraduate, students eventually must face the job market, and increasingly, they are turning to the public sector. The reasons are pragmatic: public sector positions offer secure employment, decent pay, nice benefits and perks, and favorable work-life balance. This shift is further bolstered by the expansion of the public sector itself, with national civil service recruitment surging by 173 percent from 2019 to 2024.

The growing interest in the public sector also explains the surge in popularity of 法学 (faxue) majors. While literally translated as “legal studies,” faxue in China is broader, encompassing fields such as law, political science, sociology, ethnology, Marxism, and public security. A sociology major, for instance, can obtain a faxue degree, which is actually a BA rather than an LLB.  According to the recently released rankings of the most searched majors during the college entrance examination period, faxue ranked first, while majors in international economics and trade – which until recently were among the most popular – now rank 44^th.  

Transplanted from the former Soviet Union, faxue education in China offers graduates several advantages in pursuing civil service careers. There are higher quotas available for them in national and provincial civil service exams. Their college education equips them with skills crucial for various sections of the civil service exam, particularly in essay writing and material analysis, making them well-prepared candidates for civil service positions. For those entering a police academy, the path to the public sector is even more straightforward. Upon graduation, they can take the “Public Security Joint Exam,” which has a much higher acceptance rate than the national or provincial civil service exams. Police academy students can typically pass this exam, directly securing a stable civil servant position upon graduation.

This trend in China mirrors shifts seen in other developing economies, such as India and Russia. Unlike these countries, where public sector preference has been a long-standing trend, China’s pivot is more recent and dramatic. As talent rapidly flows towards government roles, it could potentially hamper innovation and economic dynamism. Moreover, intense competition for limited public sector positions could lead to social tensions, as seen in Bangladesh where a shift in government job recruitment landscape has sparked deadly student protests against the government.  To make matters worse, the surge in faxue majors raises questions about the future composition of China’s bureaucracy. An oversupply of graduates with legal and political backgrounds could solidify the security-oriented policy structure, potentially steering the country towards a more authoritarian state.

To conclude, while a robust public sector is essential, an overreliance on government employment and an oversupply of faxue majors could significantly reshape China’s future.  For further elaboration of the above arguments, please refer to the piece I mentioned earlier.