CHINA: Army of graduates struggles for jobs

In 1998 when Jiang Zemin, then president of China, announced plans to bolster higher education, universities and colleges produced 830,000 graduates a year. Last May, that number was more than six million and rising, writes Andrew Jacobs for the New York Times.

It is a remarkable achievement, yet for a government fixated on stability, such figures are also a cause for concern. The economy, despite its robust growth, does not generate enough good professional jobs to absorb the influx of highly educated young adults. And many of them bear the inflated expectations of their parents, who emptied their bank accounts to buy them the good life that a higher education is presumed to guarantee.

"College essentially provided them with nothing," said Zhang Ming, a political scientist and vocal critic of China's education system. "For many young graduates, it's all about survival. If there was ever an economic crisis, they could be a source of instability."
Full report on the New York Times site