Uni grads jobless rate peaks in ten years

The unemployment of university graduates has reached the highest in ten years, according to figures from a university advisory committee. 

A survey from the University Grants Committee showed 2.8 percent of university students who graduated in the 2018 to 2019 academic year were jobless, marking the peak in the past decade. 

Among the eight UGC-funded universities, the unemployment rate was highest in the City University of Hong Kong at 5.2 percent.

The poll covered around 10,830 fresh graduates from the eight government-funded universities, and found that 432 respondents could not find jobs. 

Colin Wong Cheuk-yui, co-founder of graduate consulting agency OnGrad, believes the social-unrest which has lasted more than a year and the current pandemic situation have rendered many university graduates jobless.

“Many students have chosen to delay their graduations for a year due to the undesirable environment of the job market, there might be more severe competitions in the coming year as two batches of graduates will be scrambling for jobs,” said Wong, adding that the situation could be worse next year. 

He suggested students who will be graduating next year to start hunting job offers from large companies this month, as these corperations would still recruit fresh graduates to sustain manpower amid a slowing economy.