One in 10 college graduates works in China’s digital economy: survey

Among college graduates and graduates-to-be of the classes of 2020 to 2023 in China, 11.68 percent are employed or self-employed in digital economy-related fields, and 88.17 percent of them feel satisfied with their job, according to a recent survey report based on more than 40,000 valid questionnaires.

College graduates look for suitable jobs at a job fair held in Hebei University of Engineering in Handan city, north China's Hebei Province. (Photo/Hao Qunying)

Because of their good prospects, the fact that they offer jobs suited to the professional training graduates have received, as well as good salaries and employee benefits, digital economy-related fields appeal to college graduates, suggests the report, which was jointly released by the Institute of Employment and Entrepreneurship Education, Northeast Normal University and AliResearch, the research arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

"The friendliness, popularity, diversity and flexibility of employment in the digital economy match the employment needs of today's youth," says the report.

Platforms in the digital economy have played important roles in providing new jobs and improving the employment structure, according to the report.

The document indicates that digital economy platform enterprises promote employment at three levels, namely providing jobs for their employees, providing platforms for entrepreneurs and practitioners of new professions, and boosting employment in upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial ecosystem.

On multiple digital platforms, college graduates are vigorously trying new business forms and professions. Some graduates have made several hundred thousand yuan by cultivating desktop plants, and some have embarked on careers as digital transformation managers, resume optimizers, application developers, and blockchain engineers, among other emerging professions.

On the other hand, platforms in the digital economy are building the ecology of basic services for entrepreneurship and employment, according to the report. Such platforms provide certification services for digital training, facilitate collaborative innovations among different links of industries, and help college graduates improve their professional competence, the report explains.

The report predicts that by the year 2030, the digital economy will provide jobs for more than 400 million people, and more than 28 million jobs will be offered to college graduates, which represents an increase of over 12 million compared to 2021.

The digital economy will grow into an "incubator" and "reservoir" of new jobs by 2030, when "platform-based employment" and "ecosphere employment" will gradually take shape, according to the report.