Family Social Capital’s Impacts On The Employment Intentions Of University Students

Starting from 1999, the Chinese colleges and universities have pushed forward the college expansion plan, since then, the Chinese higher education began to transform from the "elite mode" to the so-called "public mode". Meanwhile, the Chinese government completely stopped assigning jobs in a unified manner for the college graduates. The employment policy changed from "government assignment" to "two-way choice" between the student and employer. As increasing number of college graduates entered the labor market, yet the elasticity of employment continuously went down, the problem of employment became obvious. Due to this tough situation, college graduates, especially fresh graduates, could not be employed through normal method or system, therefore, the social capital, particularly speaking, the family social capital played a role in students’employment process. Thus, this essay takes student body’s family social capital as a starting point of research and investigates into the college graduates’employment intention through practical research. The essay aims at illustrating the mechanism of how family social capital influences college graduates’ employment intention, including further suggestions regarding how to improve Chinese universities’student employment policy.This essay combines literature search with field survey in its method. Based upon a wild range of international documents and reference materials, local survey and interviews were conducted. The conclusion is given with thorough analysis of the research data and content. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the influence of family social capital upon students’employment intentions, not only questionnaire but also individual interviews were prepared. The questionnaire survey was distributed in six typical colleges and universities in Shanghai. In the end,718 effective samples were collected. On the other hand, the semi-structured interviews confront fresh graduates from various types of colleges and universities. By means of analyzing the empirical data, the research shows that:i. At the moment, most college students have somewhat strong abilities to learn, innovate, communicate, as well as to adjust to new environments. They believe the current job market is tough. They tend to self reflect while facing employment difficulties. They are confident in finding jobs while going through a certain degree of stress. They hope the school could provide detailed instruction during job search. Also, many students start to look into their own family social capital.ii. There is a positive correlation between a student’s family social capital and his/her own understanding of employment, which means the more family social capital one owns, the better family economic foundation one stands, the stronger social network support one has, the more positive the student thinks of employment, also, the student will look more into the fulfillment of self-worth and self-interest.iii. Most college graduates tend to choose to work in foreign-invested enterprises or private-owned companies in coastal cities. They expect at least 5000 RMB as monthly salary for their first job. Different sexes differ significantly in orienting their choice of company as well as the expectation of their first job’s monthly salary. The origins of students have a bigger effect on job location and the expectation of the first job’s monthly salary. The level of education remarkably affects students’choices of companies, job location and monthly salary expectation. Undergraduate students prefer foreign-invested enterprises or private-owned companies. Graduate students prefer public institutions. More percentage of graduate students than undergraduate students are willing to work inland, in mid or western China.iv. There is a positive correlation between a student’s family social capital and his/her own expectation of employment, which means the more family social capital one owns, the better family economic foundation one stands, the stronger social network support one has, the student is more willing to work in developed areas. He/she is more likely to enter a job that pays better, offers more welfare, yet also meets one’s own interest or demand of development.Based upon the research results above, the essay ends with suggestions in policy making:for the government needs to establish equitable and valid environment for employment competition, for the universities an colleges need to actively provide advices and guidance to their students regarding job search, for each student needs to legitimately gather and accumulate one’s own human capital resources, in addition to utilizing public resources.