Competitive jobs market in China forces graduate from top university to seek work as domestic help

New graduates in China are facing difficulties in the increasingly competitive jobs market, which came to the fore after the resume of a graduate from a top Chinese university seeking work as a domestic help stunned internet users.

Your Trust Home Service, a Shanghai-based high-end housekeeping company, released the resume of the graduate, whose identity was redacted, on a recruitment platform on Wednesday and quickly generated online discussion, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported citing Chinese media.

The news of a graduate student seeking work as a domestic servant led to divisive reactions on Chinese social media.

"Please remember the most prestigious universities, like Tsinghua and Peking University, train talented people who are supposed to improve or change our nation, and to bring benefits to all our people. Isn't working as a family tutor a waste of such talents?" said one person.

"The fact that a Tsinghua graduate ended up working as a family tutor is the result of strong competition in the job market," another user commented.

The student, a 29-year-old woman from Nanjiang, graduated from the prestigious Tsinghua University, which is known to be ranked 15th best in the world by the QS World University Rankings last year, SCMP reported.

She described herself as being fluent in Mandarin and English, and good at cooking the foods favoured by many families in Shanghai and the surrounding Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. She expected to find a job with a salary of 35,000 yuan (USD 5,500) per month, as per her resume.

"Talented people like her are rare, but she is not the only one. We also have nannies with a master's degree, including those graduating from top overseas universities," a manager of the housekeeping company told Chinese media.

Furthermore, the high salary of a domestic worker triggered heated discussion on social media. "She is not an ordinary nanny. She is basically a private teacher. Look at her payment. It is so high that what she earns is equivalent to senior managers at enterprises. I envy her," commented one person.

More than 40 million people have graduated from universities and colleges there over the past five years, with 77 per cent of them finding jobs upon graduation, SCMP reported citing the Chinese Ministry of Education.

However, the graduates' salaries were not as high as many had expected. According to a Beijing-based consultancy, the average monthly salary for university graduates of Class 2018 and Class 2019 was 4,624 yuan and 5,440 yuan respectively.

Besides family teachers, some graduates took up other jobs that were deemed unconventional for people with university degrees.

( With inputs from ANI )