"A Prestigious Medical School Doctor Working as a High School Health Staff... China Facing the Worst Employment Crisis in History"

Master's Graduates Studying Abroad Become Dormitory Staff at Regional Universities
China's Youth Unemployment Rate (Ages 16-24) at 20.8% in May

In China, which is experiencing the worst employment crisis in history, a PhD graduate from a prestigious medical school has gained attention by taking a job as a high school health staff member.

According to local media such as Pengpai News on the 3rd, Fudan University Affiliated High School recently announced that it hired a PhD from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine through a recruitment for health personnel. The school stated, "We have decided to hire Mr. Lu Mo, a PhD in Clinical Medicine from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, and will soon make an official announcement." They also added, "Many current medical professionals applied for this health personnel position." Shanghai Jiao Tong University is a national comprehensive university located in Shanghai, China, and is considered one of China’s top prestigious universities alongside Peking University and Tsinghua University.

High school health personnel are responsible for health and infectious disease prevention tasks, monitoring students’ health conditions, and managing health records of faculty and students. Upon hearing this news, related hashtags quickly rose to the top of real-time search rankings on social networking services (SNS) in China, attracting significant attention. Chinese netizens responded with various comments such as, "A PhD candidate from a prestigious medical school choosing a high school health staff job," "It really shows how narrow the employment market is," and "It’s lucky to have found a job in this needle’s eye employment crisis."

The exterior view of Fudan University Affiliated High School, which recently selected a medical doctor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University as a health worker [Photo by Yonhap News]

There are more cases where 'high-spec' job seekers lowered their expectations to find employment. Earlier, Shandong University announced that it hired two student dormitory management center staff members who hold master’s degrees from Harbin Institute of Technology and the University of Adelaide in Australia. Harbin Institute of Technology is one of the top prestigious science and engineering universities in China, and the University of Adelaide is a national prestigious university in Australia.

Also, last month, when China National Petroleum Corporation (PetroChina) posted a job opening for one administrative staff member, 224 applicants applied, including graduates from China’s top universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University, as well as master’s and doctoral students from prestigious universities worldwide like the UK’s Royal University and the US’s Johns Hopkins University. The company restricted eligibility to those holding a master’s degree or higher from universities ranked within the top 30 worldwide by the UK daily The Times or within the top 10 in China, and who had achieved a TOEFL score of 96 or higher.

China has been suffering from economic recession and corporate management difficulties due to lockdowns caused by COVID-19 over the past three years. Amid this, the youth unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 in China reached a record high of 20.8% in May. Additionally, the number of Chinese university graduates this summer is expected to reach a record high of 11.58 million, indicating that the employment crisis is likely to continue for the time being.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.