Blog #1 - Educated Chinese Refuse Blue-Collar Work

According to a report written by Keith Bradsher for the NY Times, China's next generation is not joining the ranks of its workforce lightly. Millions are graduating with high expectations bordering on a feeling of entitlement. Each year of the past decade has seen a "quadrupling of the number of college graduates" due to an extreme national effort to expand education to China’s masses. It would seem that this innovative push is beginning to produce a unique backlash. Now, the very factory-work that catapulted China into position as an economic powerhouse is being shunned by this educated, youth movement.

Even with starting wages and benefits sometimes doubling that of starting pay for office jobs, college graduates won’t consider factory labor as an option. Many graduates are sloughing off any type of blue-collar work because of the stigma involved. Factory jobs are synonymous with the uneducated peasantry, and long-hours filled with hard work. As a result, China’s educated youth remain unemployed, spending “long hours surfing the Internet, getting together with friends and complaining about the shortage of office jobs for which they believe they were trained.” In their aversion to factory work, increasing numbers count on their families to subsidize their living expenses.

So, what does this mean for China? Bradsher suggests that the influx of graduates into the “real world” complicates China’s social stability. Having such an extreme number of educated minds sitting idle without a sense of purpose could have disastrous consequences if the masses become restless. Conflict theory could come into play as the jobless graduates latch onto a feeling of marginalization created by the government. It is possible that given the right circumstances, this marginalization could turn to organized upheaval.

On a global scale, if Chinese factories can’t find the skilled workers they need, then what other countries will pick up their eventual drop in production? Could the future see a revitalization in the iconic phrase, “Made in the USA”?

This author sincerely doubts it.

Jeff Chilcott
1/27/13
9:30PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/business/as-graduates-rise-in-china-office-jobs-fail-to-keep-up.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=education