Wanted in China: garbage supervisor with a PhD
Job listing raises a stink, stokes debate over credential excess and reflects how hard it can be to find work as pressure is heaped on jobseekers
A county-level sanitation office in southern China has invited ridicule and stoked a public debate after posting a job that requires a PhD to supervise garbage trucks and landfills – an unusual demand that critics say epitomises China’s runaway degree inflation.
The posting in Guangdong province, by the office that manages urban environmental sanitation for Shixing county, appeared online last week under a notice for “urgently needed high-level talent for public institutions” issued by the provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security.
The job ad – for what the office described as a garbage-transport supervisor, overseeing landfills and transport stations – quickly went viral among career aspirants and became a flashpoint in discussions about overqualification. Some said it was the latest example of overqualified talent in mismatched roles – a rising trend across the country in recent years amid an economic slowdown and as millions of college graduates enter the job market annually.
When asked by the Jiupai News outlet whether such an advanced degree was truly needed, a staff member said on Saturday that the role “might be for managing related affairs”, fuelling speculation over the job’s vague responsibilities.
The sanitation office, which reported just seven staff positions by the end of 2024, is primarily responsible for urban appearance inspections and facility maintenance – operational and managerial tasks that the office’s expenditure performance self-evaluation last year characterised as execution-oriented rather than research-based.
Xiong Bingqi, director of the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute, said he believed the role should require only a bachelor’s or vocational degree and criticised the decision to list a PhD as evidence of “high consumption of diplomas”.