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    Can China’s College Grads Find Peace on the Factory Floor?

    Educated young workers are increasingly applying for manufacturing positions. Why?
    Jan 14, 2025#economy#industry

    Once the reserve of blue-collar workers, the manufacturing industry has emerged as an increasingly appealing career option for educated young people in China, including those from top universities.

    Applications from fresh graduates for mechanical or manufacturing jobs surged by 104% in 2023 compared with 2021, while interest in roles related to IT, the internet, and gaming fell by almost 33% over the same period, according to data from online recruitment platforms Zhilian Zhaopin and Liepin.

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Employment Quality Report shows that nearly 17% of its Class of 2023 entered the manufacturing sector, making it the second-largest employment destination after IT and software services. The proportion of undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral graduates joining manufacturing industries all increased compared with 2022.

    The trend is similar elsewhere in the country: 24% of 2024 graduates from Jilin University, 28% of 2022 graduates from Shanghai University, and 23% of 2023 graduates from Anhui University also landed jobs in the sector. Even at Peking University, one of the country’s most prestigious institutions, the share of fresh graduates pursuing careers in manufacturing grew from 1.74% in 2016 to just over 4% in 2022.

    China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency reported that an automotive group in the northwestern Shaanxi province received more than 10,000 résumés during its 2023 campus recruitment campaign. Meanwhile, according to the government’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, new energy vehicle manufacturer BYD recruited more than 31,800 graduates in 2023, 61% of whom held master’s or doctoral degrees.

    Graduate recruitment has primarily focused on sales and engineering positions, as opposed to roles on assembly lines. However, while technical positions in manufacturing are now seen to offer stable, long-term career growth, some have questioned whether graduates “climbing down from ivory towers” can handle the challenging conditions in the sector.

    Yi Qian, a graduate from the central Henan province, began working in warehouse logistics operations at BYD’s newly opened factory in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, in June 2023. Most of her classmates pursued careers in civil services, teaching, or at major tech companies, yet she was drawn by the promise of China’s advancing manufacturing sector.

    Despite previously completing an internship at e-commerce giant JD.com, life in her new job proved a wake-up call. “I thought it would be similar to my office work at JD.com — data analysis and PowerPoint presentations,” she says. “But during our first month of training, we spent every day onsite identifying areas for process improvement. I was run off my feet.”

    Many graduates struggling to adapt to the manufacturing environment are turning to online forums for support, with discussions often revealing strict educational hierarchies within industries, with clear distinctions in roles for doctoral, master’s, and high school graduates.

    Changing workforce

    Compared with the traditional image of factories a decade ago — dimly lit, stuffy assembly lines — China’s manufacturing industry has diversified to span dozens of subsectors, ranging from agricultural and food processing to tobacco production, instrument making, and pharmaceuticals, with technological sophistication and labor reliance varying greatly.

    In 2010, when the “Made in China” label was synonymous with low-cost production, manufacturing workers aged 20 to 24 were concentrated primarily in the textile, apparel, and garment industries, according to census data. However, a decade later, the highest proportion — nearly 22% — worked in the manufacture of computers, communications equipment, and other electronics, thanks to the growth in domestic tech companies such as Hikvision, Foxconn, ZTE, and BOE Technology.

    At the same time, the innovation and technological capabilities of China’s manufacturing sector have steadily advanced. According to the government-issued China Statistical Yearbook on Science and Technology, the proportion of large-scale enterprises engaging in research and development increased from nearly 15% in 2013 to 38% in 2022, with the median number of R&D personnel growing from 68,000 to 100,000 over the same period.

    Analysis of the employee composition at 556 large A-share listed manufacturing companies also shows a consistent increase in technical and R&D personnel — now approaching 20% — while the proportion of frontline production workers has decreased.

    Nine A-share manufacturing companies were in the top 20 for total revenue and net profit in the first half of 2024, with most reporting a 3% to 10% increase in technical personnel compared with a decade earlier. For instance, the proportion of such personnel at electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing enterprise Gree went from 9% of all employees in 2014 to 22% in 2023, according to the company’s data.

    As one domestic publication put it, manufacturing “may not be a new industry, but for young people it feels like a new option.”

    Reported by Zhang Lingyuan.

    A version of this article originally appeared in The Paper. It has been translated and edited for brevity and clarity, and is republished here with permission.

    Translator: Chen Yue; graphic designers: Wei Yao and Luo Yahan; editors: Wang Juyi and Hao Qibao.

    (Header image: Jade Gao/VCG)