Graduates attend a job fair at Shandong University of Science and Technology on March 20, 2021 in Qingdao, China.

Zhang Jingang | Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJJNG – Despite China’s rapid recovery from the pandemic, many local graduates are opting for government-sponsored jobs or postponing their careers.

China was the only major economy to grow in 2020. But more than a year since the pandemic began, the 2021 class is still under pressure from high housing costs, international travel restrictions and an intense competitive environment.

Last month, CNBC spoke to more than ten local and international students from higher education programs in mainland China. Many of the sources asked for anonymity so that their names would not be associated with a foreign news organization. While these anecdotes are not to be equated with qualitative research, they reflect general employment trends for the record 9.09 million graduates in China this year.

A 24-year-old, who asked for anonymity, said she had accepted an offer from a major bank in Beijing to secure jobs. After the pandemic, companies that were too small or privately owned didn’t seem as stable as state-owned ones, she said.

Many women in her senior year also preferred jobs in state-owned companies, she said, noting that male classmates tended to take jobs in tech companies where the pay was higher but the hours were much longer.

The trend is nationwide. Chinese recruitment website Zhaopin found that 42.5% of graduates named state-owned companies as their first choice for a job – up from 36% last year.

In contrast, the percentage that opted for the private sector decreased from 25.1% to 19%. Overall, students were less inclined to enter the labor market – the study found an 18.9 percentage point decrease in graduates who took up traditional jobs. Instead, they opted for freelance work, a gap year, or an advanced degree.

“When I started thinking about work, the pandemic was already very severe,” said a master’s student at Beijing Communication University of China, who asked for anonymity. That comes from a CNBC translation of the interview in Mandarin.

The 28-year-old spent the pandemic studying at his home in northern Heilongjiang Province and then taking a doctoral examination. “It’s not that easy to get a job this year,” he said, although he is confident that there will be solutions to any problems he may face.

With the increased interest in university programs, competition among exam candidates is increasing. According to state media, a record 3.77 million people took the master’s examination in December.

The number of public service exam candidates also rose last year to 1.57 million people. They competed for 25,700 jobs.

Another communications college student, Qu Zhiyuan, 25, said her high and middle school classmates at home in eastern Shandong Province are having a harder time getting a job. Even for low-level jobs in government, there have been complaints about competition from Chinese returning from studying abroad.

“I feel like I’m the most diverse,” Qu said, according to a CNBC translation in Mandarin. While most of her classmates are taking exams for public service, state-owned corporations, or entering finance, she takes a job with a film producer and distributor in Beijing.

Instead of worrying about her own future – whether it leads to France or the US – she worries about how capital can manipulate people. “Big data can calculate when (the audience) will cry,” she said.

When graduates are in employment, the pay is generally lower than in 2019, according to Zhaopin. More than 40% of students expect to be paid between 4,000 and 6,000 yuan ($ 625 to $ 937.50) a month, the report said.

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A 26-year-old musicologist who applied for anonymity, grew up in Gansu Province in the Midwest and is looking for a tech job in the coastal metropolis of Shanghai – which he is paying well enough to pursue his plans for to support a study abroad.

He is open to a long-term stay abroad and hopes to get married when his work situation has stabilized. His longtime girlfriend plans to go to Europe later this year, he said.

Many Chinese mainland students have put their study abroad plans on hold due to the pandemic and geopolitical tensions, if not indefinitely.

Covid and visa restrictions are bigger challenges for going abroad than being rejected by schools, said Xie Hangjian, 22. He said about half of his friends intend to do masters abroad.

Xie graduated from NYU’s joint venture in Shanghai and has a job with a major US investment bank in the city.

“Despite Covid and the worsening geopolitical climate, some of the largest multinationals are still hiring a lot of new graduates, especially in mainland China,” he said, citing the economic recovery.

Opportunities for foreign students

International students remained interested in China, with a record more than 16,000 foreign applicants for NYU Shanghai’s 500 places this fall. A one-year masters program in Beijing, launched by Blackstone founder Steve Schwarzman, received 3,600 applicants in the fall, up from 4,700 the previous year.

Despite being unable to enter China due to virus-related visa restrictions, Schwarzman Scholar and 23-year-old New Zealander Nina Jeffs said she was able to do a remote internship at a start-up last year where she learned about Chinese workplace culture and sustainable aviation fuels .

“It’s easy to forget that China is a huge, very diverse country, and I think that’s something I’ve gotten a lot more insight into this year,” she said.

Upon graduation, Jeffs will work with a think tank to explore climate change policies that support greater gender equality. She hopes to visit China for some of this research.

For overseas students who can enter and stay in China, many continue to enjoy the local growth.

Despite being paid less than the US or Europe, John Dopp, 22, plans to stay in China, where he got a job on the overseas marketing team of a Chinese video game company. Dopp, an American, graduated from NYU Shanghai with a degree in finance.

“I’m very excited to start my career here just because it feels like there are so many options,” he said, noting that many Chinese companies are looking for foreigners to help their businesses expand overseas to help.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab on Monday, making it the first U.S. regulator-approved drug to slow cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer’s and the first new drug for the disease in nearly two decades.

The FDA’s decision was eagerly awaited. The drug, which is marketed under the name Aduhelm, is also expected to generate billions in sales for the company offers new hope to friends and families of patients living with the disease. Biogen stock was on hold for the announcement.

“We are aware of the attention associated with this approval,” said Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a press release. “We know that Aduhelm has drawn the attention of the press, the Alzheimer’s patient community, our elected officials and other interested stakeholders.”

“With treatment for a serious, life-threatening disease in balance, it makes sense that so many people followed the outcome of this review,” added Cavazzoni.

The FDA said it would continue to monitor the drug when it hits the US market. The agency granted approval on the condition that Biogen conduct another clinical study.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that more than 6 million Americans live with it. According to the group, this number is expected to rise to almost 13 million by 2050.

“It’s a new day,” said Harry Johns, CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association, in a statement. “This approval gives people with Alzheimer’s more time to live better. For families, it means being able to hold onto loved ones longer. It’s about resuscitating scientists and companies in the fight against this scourge of disease. It’s about hope it. “

To date, there have been no FDA-approved drugs that can slow the mental decline of Alzheimer’s, the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. The agency has approved Alzheimer’s drugs that are aimed at relieving symptoms rather than slowing the disease itself down.

Federal agencies have come under intense pressure from friends and family members of Alzheimer’s patients to speed up aducanumab, but the road to regulatory approval has been controversial since it showed promise in 2016.

In March 2019, Biogen stopped work on the drug after analysis by an independent group found it was unlikely to work. The company then shocked investors a few months later by announcing that it would apply for regulatory approval for the drug after all.

Biogen’s shares soared in November after the company received support from FDA officials who said the company had very “compelling” evidence of aducanumab’s effectiveness and “an acceptable safety profile that would make its use in individuals would assist with Alzheimer’s disease “, submitted.

But two days later, a panel of external experts advising the US agency unexpectedly declined to approve the experimental drug, citing inconclusive data. It also criticized the agency’s staff for rating it too positively.

When Biogen filed for approval for the drug in late 2019, its scientists said a new analysis of a larger data set showed that aducanumab “reduces clinical decline in patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.”

Alzheimer’s experts and Wall Street analysts were immediately skeptical, wondering whether the clinical trial data was enough to prove the drug works and whether approval could make it difficult for other companies to enroll patients in their own drug trials.

Some doctors have said they won’t prescribe aducanumab when it hits the market because the mixed data package helps the company’s use.

Supporters, including advocacy groups and family members of patients desperately looking for a new treatment, have admitted the data is not perfect. However, they claim it could help some patients with Alzheimer’s, a progressive and debilitating disease.

Biogen’s drug targets a “sticky” compound in the brain known as beta-amyloid that scientists expect to play a role in the devastating disease. The company previously estimated that approximately 1.5 million people with early-stage Alzheimer’s in the United States could be candidates for the drug, according to Reuters.

The approval is “interesting because the FDA is essentially confirming that the beta-amyloid hypothesis has been validated,” said Salim Syed, a senior biotech analyst at Mizuho Securities, on Monday, adding that the decision had a major impact will have future clinical trials. Some experts are not convinced that targeting the compound will slow cognitive decline.

The FDA’s decision is expected to reverberate across the biopharmaceutical sector, RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams said in a June 1 announcement to customers.

The US agency said Monday it found there was “substantial evidence” that the drug is helping patients. “With Aduhelm approved by the FDA, an important and critical new treatment is available to patients with Alzheimer’s disease to combat the disease,” the statement said.