More Chinese graduates explore gig work as pay growth trails national averages: report

China’s growing army of university graduates is opting for flexible work and pursuing higher degrees less frequently, while growth in starting salaries lags national averages, according to a Beijing-based education consultancy.

Over the past five years, the share of university graduates seeking flexible jobs rose 2.7 percentage points to 6.9 per cent, from 4.2 per cent in 2021, with a slightly higher bump among those from vocational colleges, the MyCOS Research Institute found in its annual report on employment trends.

The report, released last week, also said just 3.4 per cent of graduates sat for graduate school admission examinations before finding jobs, down from 5.6 per cent in 2023.

After graduating in 2025, 63 per cent of jobseekers moved to relatively small cities at or below the prefecture level, up from 58 per cent in 2021.

“The traditional one-way flow patterns of following the trend for further studies and preferring first-tier cities are gradually being broken, replaced by more pragmatic and diversified career paths,” MyCOS said.

“Employment characteristics of the new generation of [university] graduates are rooting themselves in prefecture-level cities, rationally viewing further education and embracing diverse and flexible employment.”