The first "Survey Report on Youth Employment'' was released at the International Forum on Youth Employment and Harmonious Society held from May 20 to 21 in Beijing. The report shows that the unemployment rate is higher than the average level of the society. The government departments and State-run enterprises are the first choice for youth and 20 per cent of the youth are keen to set up their own businesses.

The survey was made in four cities including Dalian, Tianjin, Changsha and Liuzhou with the participation of 7,000 youth recipients and 220 enterprises. The recipients were youth aged between 15 to 29 and their employers.

The survey report shows the ideal employment work units for the majority of the youth were the government departments and the State-run enterprises or some of them chose to set up their own businesses. Twenty-one and 22 per cent of the youth recipients thought their ideal work units were the government departments and the State-run enterprises respectively and 20 per cent of the youth wished to set up their own businesses. Some of the youth wished to work in private-run enterprises and transnational corporations.

Employed young people were satisfied with their present work generally and most of them were not intending to have their work changes in the future. According to the survey 41 per cent of the recipients did not want to change work while 28 per cent of the recipients were not certain about their future work changes. The survey also showed that the employment quality for the youth was comparatively lower and the most of the youth had no guarantee for their work with unstable work, long working hours and low income. And it was even worse for the low-aged youth or the youth in the rural areas.

The survey showed that the industries the most of the youth liked were mainly focused on the trades of information transmission, computer services, software and finance. Twenty-one and 12 per cent of the recipients thought the above industries were the ideal ones respectively. The traditional manufacturing and service industries such as manufacturing, wholesales, retail sales and public administration were the second ideal choices for youth. Whereas the trades including catering, health, social guarantee and welfare industries were the choices comparatively less youth liked to choose.

The report pointed out that the voluminous Chinese labor force constituted a great pressure on employment. The annual growth of the labor force in China is about 20 million. Due to the limit of education capacity the annual employment demand for the newly increased labor force is between 10 to 16 million. Youths are not strong in market competitiveness due to their lack of working experience. Under the condition of the supply-over-demand labor market it is more evident for the issue of youth employment, showing an employment rate higher than the average levels.

By People's Daily Online