Hard choice
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Where should China's college graduates go?Mega-cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are not the places for graduates due to the soaring property prices and living costs. These young people are recommended to be realistic and turn their eyes to smaller cities.
The large cities, fuelled by domestic demand and consumption, provided the platform for improved living standards, better business and job opportunities and an international showcase. However, these cities now face a population ceiling challenge and stiff business competition.
China has developed pockets of economic drivers in different provincial capitals to timely introduce economic growth in different regions. As such, cities began their economic reform at different stages and thus with time, this has become known as the Chinese tiered city system, with cities labeled as first, second, third or fourth tier cities.
However, the suggestion that college graduates explore opportunities in the second, third or fourth tier cities has opened a discussion on the realities of these cities. True they have cheaper houses and a lower cost of living, but guanxi, or connections, are so influential in their labor markets that newcomers are at a disadvantage.
Connections influence both the job search and successful acquisition in a considerably transformed State sector, when jobs are highly desirable, or when jobs are "soft-skill" and thus job performance is hard to measure, quantify or monitor.
If connections remain influential in China's lower tiered cities, college graduates will find it difficult to establish themselves there.
