30 years of reform and opening up： the concept of youth employment has gradually changed

　　-Throughout the 30 years of reform and opening-up, the concept of youth employment in China has undergone three stages, namely, obeying distribution, opening to the outside world and choosing jobs independently.

　　The changes in youth employment and development illustrate three trends of youth employment: autonomy-increasingly strong subjectivity; Pragmatic ―― political color is diluted; Diversification-the choice is getting wider and wider.

　　Obeying Distribution-Legacy Stage of Planning System: 1978-mid-1980s

　　From 1978 to the mid-1980s, under the influence of the inertia of the planned economic system, rural youth, like farmers, could not move freely. Among urban youth, because higher education is still a highly centralized planned management mode, employment is "all-inclusive and all-divided", and the state undertakes the distribution of work and is responsible for the end. At this stage, China youth’s concept of choosing a job is passive and single.

　　-Except for a few rural youths who have changed their fate by passing the college entrance examination, most of them have inherited their father’s business, collectively cultivated land or distributed farmland to households with household contract responsibility system, all of which are mainly farming. Most of the young people who are not college students in cities and towns are "successors", which is also the inheritance of their father’s business; Because the social employment system and recruitment system are rigid and rigid, the educated youth who receive secondary and higher education emphasize that everything is subject to social needs and national distribution. "I am a brick of the revolution, so I need to move wherever I need it."

　　-The criteria for choosing a job tend to be politicized. Rural youth basically have no choice because of the fixity of farming. The criteria for choosing jobs for urban youth are mainly manifested in the evaluation of different occupations, with political status and social status as the first factors. The results of a survey on "Youth Employment in China" in 1984 showed that young people at that time paid attention to social status, social significance, giving full play to individual talents and remuneration in turn.

　　-Intention to choose a job: At that time, political status and social status were the most important things for youth employment, and the text of "complaining" of educated youth, which is still popular today, still shows that "going to the countryside" is an indelible "scar"; In a few years or even a longer period after the resumption of the college entrance examination, the educated youth "returning to the city" has become a major landscape of China’s population migration. In cities and towns, business is still the last stage. College students are generally interested in science and engineering, and their ideal careers are "scientists" and "engineers". Ordinary unemployed young people also take "going to work" as their first consideration, and only when there is no way out will they go to "self-employed" or tertiary industries such as commerce and service industry.

　　However, the demand for talents in China has been brewing in a new stage of social development, which will change the employment concepts and ways of many young people.

　　Towards Opening-up ―― "Migrant Workers’ Tide" and Two-way Choice of Urban Youth: Mid-1980s-Mid-1990s

　　-The concept of rural youth employment is gradually opening up. Due to the release of a large number of rural surplus labor brought about by the household contract responsibility system, there is a large demand for rural labor in cities and towns, especially in enterprises and construction industries, and the national household registration system, grain and oil supply system and employment management system have been loosened. After that, the government further introduced some policies and measures to allow and encourage the regional exchange of rural labor force, the exchange between urban and rural areas and the export of labor services in poor areas, which led to a large-scale cross-regional flow of rural labor force-"migrant workers’ tide" and the concept of rural youth employment gradually opened up.

　　-The changes in urban employment are mainly reflected in the educated youth. Since 1985, China has gradually reformed the employment system for college graduates step by step and at different levels. The reform goal put forward in 1989: under the guidance of the national employment policy, gradually implement the "two-way choice" system in which graduates choose their own jobs and employers choose the best ones. This reform introduces competition mechanism into colleges and universities, and makes graduates’ employment gradually market-oriented. Therefore, the biggest change in youth employment is that "economic status" has become the most priority factor in choosing a job, surpassing the "social status" and "political status" that have been dominant for many years. The main manifestations of "economic status" becoming the first choice standard are:

　　First, I hope to work in Sino-foreign joint ventures or "foreign-funded" enterprises in special zones and coastal areas. According to a survey of thousands of college students in Beijing, nearly 40% of them want to work in special economic zones and coastal open areas after graduation, and Sino-foreign joint ventures are placed in the first place.

　　Second, not seeking a high degree, but seeking a high income. In the late 1980s, the number of postgraduate students dropped sharply. From 1987 to 1989, more than 700 graduate students dropped out of school. During this period, the proportion of college students interested in science and engineering fell below 50%, a phenomenon known as "knowledge flight". The phrase "as poor as a professor and as stupid as a doctor" tells a strange and real social phenomenon.

　　The third is the growth of secondary occupation and occupational mobility. In the middle and late 1980s, young people began to "job-hop", and the career mobility of young people surfaced. Many young people have played the slogan of "seeking stability in the first occupation and getting rich in the second occupation", and the number of newly graduated college students has increased from "one step in place" to "riding a horse to find a horse", and the flow of talents has gradually become active. The phenomenon of "state-owned-collective-joint venture-sole proprietorship" in choosing a job has also emerged endlessly, which has led to such a situation in the economic life in the 1990s: the workers in "state-owned enterprises" have shrunk sharply, the workers in "collective enterprises" have flowed out one after another, and the "foreign-funded enterprises" have prospered. Especially in 1993 and 1994, there was a lively scene of college students rushing to open coastal areas.

　　Fourth, economic income has become the first criterion for choosing a job. At that time, the first factor that young people considered in the process of choosing a job was income and welfare; Young people’s favorite industries are: finance and insurance, industrial enterprises, state organs, service industries, scientific research institutions and so on.

　　Self-employment ―― the diversified era of pursuing development: from the middle and late 1990s to the present.

　　-Employment of Rural Youth Since the mid-1990s, rural youth can no longer be tied to rural land, but can freely enter cities and towns. As a result, a large number of rural youth began to work, live and even settle in cities. With the development of society, rural youth have stepped out of the "living strategy" in employment choice, and the first principle of going out to work is no longer "making money", but the image of "economic rational person" puts development first; No longer willing to act as a "passer-by" of the city, but strive to expand their own development space and want to become a member of the city.

　　-Urban Youth Employment At this stage, the employment of urban youth has also moved towards "self-employment", "self-employment" and even starting their own businesses. With the further deepening of China’s reform and opening up, especially after China’s accession to the WTO, the social situation in China has changed: China’s colleges and universities have expanded enrollment, the number of graduates has increased year by year, and it is also worth streamlining government institutions, reducing staff and increasing efficiency in state-owned enterprises, and diverting laid-off workers. The employment contradiction is prominent and the situation is very serious.

　　At this stage, the concept of career choice of educated youth with college students as the main body has changed greatly.

　　First of all, in terms of job selection criteria, we attach importance to development prospects, opportunities to display talents, salary and benefits, and working environment.

　　Secondly, in the understanding of employment, the hierarchical concept between institutions, institutions, enterprises and state-owned, collective and private units has been gradually broken, and "entrepreneurship is also employment" has become a generally accepted concept.

　　Third, in the intention of choosing a job, it has changed from "paying attention to business" to "paying equal attention to business", and the service industry, which was not optimistic in the past, has also become a hot spot for choosing a job.

　　Fourth, the political color is more diluted in the evaluation of occupations. Instead, they yearn for occupations that suit their interests and combine material needs with spiritual pursuits.

　　Fifth, the dependence on parents and others is weakened in the distance between the place of employment and the place where parents live. "Research fever", "foreign language fever" and "going abroad fever" are the proof of this strengthening of independent consciousness.

　　Sixth, be brave in starting a business and change from passive employment to self-employment. In 2002, the China Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Network sponsored by the Youth Industry Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League was officially put into operation, and various local league organizations have successively established and introduced supporting platforms and measures for youth employment and entrepreneurship.

　　Conclusion: Three trends of youth employment

　　To sum up, the employment and development of young people are oriented by social policies and social needs at that time, but this change shows three trends of youth employment in general.

　　-Autonomy-increasingly strong subjectivity From the three stages of the evolution of youth employment, the subjective consciousness of youth employment, especially rural youth employment, has gradually increased, and "autonomy" has become more and more prominent, which has not only got rid of the social structural inhibition caused by the national system, but also gradually got rid of the micro-level constraints caused by parents. The former is mainly manifested in that the state gradually withdraws from the position of "director" and is no longer directly responsible for young people’s job selection; The latter is mainly manifested in that from urban youth to rural youth, the geographical space of youth employment has greatly expanded, from cross-county, inter-provincial to cross-country, and the distance from home (where parents are located) is basically no longer considered.

　　-Practicality-Political color has faded. After 30 years of reform and opening up, China’s economic strategic position has gradually improved, and the youth’s employment concept has also shown the strengthening of economic orientation, and economic awareness has generally increased. With the strengthening of economic consciousness, young people join the market economy more actively. This is a transformation of a country’s "development is the last word", which is a pragmatic embodiment and a qualitative leap. However, with the deepening of the reform, the "career economy" of China’s youth employment, especially the popularity of college students taking the civil service examination, has reached a climax again in recent years, which shows that the economic function of China’s administrative system is not the same as that of the period when the brain and body were upside down.

　　-Diversification-Wider choices With the social changes and changes in the employment situation, youth employment is becoming more and more diversified, which includes not only the variety of employment types, but also the choice of "informal employment" or even "no employment". The former is mainly manifested in the diversification of occupational types (such as civil servants, scientific research institutes, state-owned enterprises, foreign enterprises, private enterprises, etc.), geographical location (big cities, provincial capitals, coastal areas, rural areas in developed eastern regions, remote and poor areas in western regions) and employment channels (job selection and self-employment); The latter is mainly manifested in family employment, freelancers, freelance writers, vocational postgraduate students, and overseas students. (Liu Chengbin)

Editor: Wang Jiaolong