Left Hand High Employment Rate, Right Hand Low Contract Rate

Recently, the 2007 national vocational college student employment quality evaluation report was issued by the National Bureau of statistics.

The survey shows that the employment rate of secondary vocational school students is over 95%, while the employment rate of vocational students is around 62%.

The average monthly salary of vocational college graduates is 1510 yuan, but the proportion of signing formal labor contracts is worrisome, the highest proportion is less than 15%.

Since this year, with the formal promulgation and implementation of the labor contract law, the topic of the protection of workers' rights and interests has once again become the focus.

The report of nearly 30 thousand graduates from 61 vocational schools in 18 provinces and cities suddenly pushed the quality of employment of vocational college graduates to the front desk.

In the past, there has been a great deal of exaggeration in the society, that is, the employment rate of vocational school graduates is higher than that of ordinary college graduates.

The left hand is the "high employment rate" and the right hand is the "low contract rate". How should we evaluate the contradictions in the employment of vocational school students?

Although there is no clear information on the formal employment contract signed by ordinary college graduates, we can make general calculations and comparisons based on relevant information.

According to statistics, in 2005, the proportion of the total number of college graduates receiving the total number of graduates in the different units in the country accounted for 41.7% of the total number of Party and government organs, public institutions and state-owned enterprises.

Taking into account the general nature of the above units, and part of the foreign enterprises, private enterprises and other units are relatively formal employment, we can draw an approximate conclusion: the proportion of college graduates signing formal employment contracts should be far higher than the proportion of vocational school students.

This means that behind vocational school students who have "high employment rate", they have lower labor rights and interests protection.

In fact, vocational school students mainly flow into various industrial and commercial enterprises, belong to the first-line technical operators. The higher employment rate of vocational school students reflects the upgrading of the industrial structure in China, and the demand for technical workers is more vigorous.

It can be corroborated that the developed areas such as the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta have been troubled by the shortage of skilled workers in recent years. The so-called "shortage of migrant workers" is essentially a "shortage of skilled workers".

Therefore, vocational school students are replacing migrant workers without technical expertise.

It can be seen that the conclusion that "undergraduates are inferior to vocational school students" is only a temporary illusion.

In the future, with the further upgrading of the industrial structure, the proportion of GDP in the service sector will exceed the manufacturing sector.

This brings us back to the topic of "low contract rate" for vocational school students.

It is thought-provoking that under the relevant provisions of the labor contract law, the ratio of formal employment contracts signed by vocational school students will be greatly improved, and the labor rights and interests enjoyed by vocational school students will be more secure, which will certainly accelerate the upgrading of the industrial structure: enterprises will pay more attention to improving the intensity of capital and technology, so as to reduce labor costs as much as possible.

This is what some drafting experts of labor contract law warn, that is, too strict labor protection will reduce the level of employment -- enterprises can reduce the total number of labor force by improving the efficiency of unit labor.

In a sense, in view of the particularity of employment orientation of vocational school students, "high employment rate" is closely related to "low contract rate".

In the future, with the increase of the ratio of formal employment contracts, the employment rate of vocational school students will be relatively lower.

Therefore, it is not appropriate to overbrag "undergraduates are inferior to vocational school students" and blindly expand the enrollment scale of vocational school students.