Grads urged to take blue-collar jobs

(Ecns.cn) -- Zhang Yuanyuan, a recent college grad in Henan Province, scours the newspapers for job listings every day.

After months of looking, she has begun to lose hope. She has also discovered that pay rates for blue-collar jobs are comparable to many so-called white-collar jobs. Often, depending on the industry, blue-collar workers make even more, she says.

Demand for blue-collar workers in China has exceeded supply, so wage increases are happening in the manufacturing and service industries, reports the China Youth Daily.

Nevertheless, many graduates remain adamant about pursuing office jobs for fear of harder work and lower social status. They also believe there is more room for development in white-collar fields.

Yet most people believe youngsters should lower their standards, a recent survey showed.

The China Youth Daily found that more than 83 percent of 2,008 respondents supported the idea of college graduates taking blue-collar work.

According to Shanghai's Human Resources and Social Security Department, the city's number of unemployed adults aged under 35 is particularly bad, accounting for over 30 percent of the total.

The survey respondents cited several reasons for the problem: 82.6 percent said graduates are usually fastidious, but incompetent, 73.7 percent said graduates fear hardships, while 55.4 percent said grads are indecisive and blinded by career clichés.

Being so picky can be hazardous to future prospects. If a college graduate refuses to work unless he finds an ideal job, he may lose his competitive edge and become a family burden, for example.

According to the survey, 79.4 percent of the respondents suggested that unemployed college graduates should take blue-collar jobs rather than stay home and rely on their parents.

Yu Baocai, the youngest senior leader of the Lanzhou branch of the China National Petroleum Corporation, is a good example of how a blue-collar job can lead to career advancement. Yu graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department at Tsinghua University in 1987 and then took a blue-collar job, but got promoted many times because of his professional background.

Blue-collar work requires intelligent graduates and can be a good choice for career planning, says Prof. Xiao Mingzheng, director of the Human Resource Development and Management Research Center at Peking University.

As demand for blue-collar workers is increasing, companies should treat workers better and pay them even more than white-collars to attract talent, says Wu Hui, a blue-collar worker in Hubei Province.

Many businesses are shifting from traditional, labor-intensive manufacturing to more high-tech production, so there is huge demand for posts such as technicians. If the pay is equal to white-collar jobs, more graduates will apply.