Mainland Chinese newspaper The Paper reported that there were 7,441 graduates from the country’s prestigious Tsinghua University class of 2021, a slight increase of more than 400 over the class of 2020. 3,669 of them signed a “tripartite employment agreement.” The tripartite employment agreement refers to the agreement signed by graduates, employers and schools to guarantee the rights and obligations of the student. Among those, 15.8 percent secured their first jobs in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and in government organizations, 30.3 percent found jobs in institutions such as universities and research units, and 23.8 percent in state-owned enterprises. In short, a total of nearly 70 percent entered the state related sector.

In comparison, in year 2019 and 2020 respectively 61.2 percent and 64.9 percent of Tsinghua graduates found their jobs in the state sector. The proportion in 2021 is not only higher, but also growing at an accelerated pace.

As a matter of fact, the high percentage of graduates from China’s top universities looking for government related jobs is no small number. For example, 50.05 percent of graduates from Shanghai Jiaotong University entered CCP and government organs, institutions, state-owned enterprises and the military, while the percentage from Xiamen University graduates was nearly 60 percent.

As the economy slows down, new graduates prefer the state sector, so they have stable jobs. This is a manifestation of people’s assessment on their prospects for the near future. According to China’s Ministry of Education, there will be 9.09 million college graduates in 2021, a year-over-year increase of 350,000, and another 10.76 million college graduates in 2022, an increase of 1.67 million. Tackling unemployment is a major challenge for the Chinese government.

Source: The Paper, January 3, 2022
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_16131271

As China’s economy is plagued by sagging demand, the uncertainty of supplies and lower expectations, the government once again has

resorted to massive infrastructure projects to stimulate growth. After only 10 days into 2022, China has already started over 5,000 major infrastructure projects, with a total investment of more than 3 trillion yuan (US$ 0.47 trillion).

At an Economic Work Conference in December 2021, the central government proposed to “deploy infrastructure investments ahead of the time,” implying an increase in infrastructure investments in 2022. At the time, the Ministry of Finance issued an added quota of 1.46 trillion yuan (US$ 0.23 trillion) for the special debts in 2022.

At the beginning of the year, several provinces disclosed plans to issue local government bonds in the first quarter, on the scale of about 800 billion yuan (US$125 billion), including over 550 billion yuan (US$86.3 billion) in new special bonds. Other financing tools are also being promoted, including real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the infrastructure sector, the green government-social capital cooperation (or Public-Private Partnership PPP) projects.

The Securities Times, a mainland based financial news outlet, reported that as of January 10, at least 11 provinces have held project start-up activities, involving more than 5,000 major projects with a total scale of investment of more than 3 trillion yuan (US$0.47 trillion). This compares to the level of 1.2 trillion yuan (US$0.19 trillion) from January of 2021. The key areas of investment include 5G network, industrial Internet, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and big data center.

Source: Securities Times, January 11, 2022
https://www.stcn.com/stock/djjd/202201/t20220111_4058632.html