Kang Yuanming provides basic training at a dance class in Dongxiang county, Jiangxi province, in August. He and two colleagues set up a dance school after they graduated from Jiangxi Normal University in 2013. （Song Zhenping/Xinhua）
Survey finds that self-employed earn 30 percent more money
The average monthly income and job satisfaction of college graduates who start their own businesses are higher than their peers who are employed by companies and institutions, a survey found.
The Chinese College Graduates' Employment Annual Report released recently by MyCOS, an education data and consulting company, said the average monthly income for self-employed graduates was 4,895 yuan ($760) a half a year after graduation, about 30 percent more than the 3,756 yuan earned by those employed by others.
The survey polled 126,000 students who graduated from college in 2014. Of those, more than 79 percent were employed by other companies or institutions. Nearly 2.9 percent, or about 3,700 graduates, started their own businesses.
Zhou Lingbo, an expert with MyCOS, said the average income of the self-employed graduates was elevated by a large proportion of high earners in that group.
According to the report, nearly 46 percent of self-employed graduates earned 5,000 yuan or more per month during the first six months after graduation, while only 20 percent of those employed by others earned that much.
Pu Lei, 24, who started an IT business after graduating from a college in Sichuan province last summer, said he only gives himself a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan, equivalent to the average salary of an ordinary computer programmer in Sichuan.
"I'm able to give myself more, say 10,000 yuan per month, if I want. But I prefer to keep the money for the future development of my business," he said.
Zheng Dongliang, director of the Work Science Research Institute, a branch of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said at least two factors create the income gap between self-employed graduates and their peers employed by others.
"One is that college graduates' entrepreneurship has been encouraged and supported in recent years, and the current situation is quite favorable to graduates who start their own businesses," he said. "The other factor, which cannot be ignored, is the starting salary of graduates hired by companies or enterprises has been consistently low."
The report said the gap grows wider three years after students graduate. Those who graduated in 2011 and became their own bosses earned an average of 9,040 yuan each month, while those employed by others earned 6,050 yuan.
A similar trend was found in job satisfaction, as more self-employed graduates - 80 percent - expressed satisfaction with their job than those employed by others - 62 percent - in the months after graduation.
Three years after graduation, the proportion of those feeling satisfied dropped to 60 percent among self-employed graduates, still higher than the 52 percent satisfaction reported by those employed by others.
Zheng said the result was understandable because self-employed graduates are doing what they want to do and are often fully deploying their talents and capabilities.
"The feeling of building up something from nothing on your own is great for these graduates," Zheng said. "By contrast, we often see graduates hired by others land a job that is not relevant to their college majors, or that is not suitable for them. It's not pleasant."
Liu Shuiyin, 24, who graduated in 2013 and is now running an education business, said the biggest satisfaction of entrepreneurship comes from the realization of personal values and the fast speed of personal growth.
"You know what you should do and why you should do it," she said. "This brought me much happiness."
Although there is much positive data about college graduate entrepreneurship, Zhou still suggested graduates should be careful about starting a business right after graduation.
"It's not easy for college graduates to succeed in starting and running a business. Apart from giving lessons on entrepreneurship, colleges should also educate students to access and avoid risks," he said.
