Economy

Graduates apply for community service jobs

By Wang Wen (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-16 08:02

Social worker positions set to be major source of future civil servants

The Beijing municipal government planned to spend three years, starting 2009, recruiting 5,000 college graduates to work in communities as a kind of social worker. That goal has been met one year earlier than planned, as 2,534 new college graduates and 424 former village officials have been employed this year and about 2,100 people joined up in 2009, including 1,984 students who graduated that year and 116 former village officials.

"So many graduates applied for the job, it enabled us to complete the 5,000 people plan ahead of schedule," said Song Guilun, secretary of the Beijing Committee for Social Workers.

According to the Beijing human resources and social security bureau, more than 12,000 college graduates applied for positions in early May, 400 percent more than their recruitment plan.

About 7,000 applicants attended examinations in late May, although almost half of the applicants then gave up, according to bureau.

Song said this is normal because some applicants received offers of other jobs after they had applied.

"After all, a social worker is not their first-choice occupation and they have many other employment channels," Song said.

However, more than 200 of the 2009 graduates quit after working as social workers in communities last year, partly because they were not content with their wages.

"I was not satisfied with my salary," said Zhao Xiaoying, a woman who graduated from a university in Beijing and was one of the first group of graduate social workers working in communities in Beijing.

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Zhao said she received about 1,000 yuan a month, plus insurance and other welfare benefits.

"We believe social workers will have a rosy future, as local authorities continue to pay attention to communities. But right now we need the means to live in the city," she said.

Xia Xueluan, professor of sociology at Peking University, said social workers should have better pay because, several years ago, they got about 30,000 yuan per year, which was pretty good at the time.

Xia suggested that social workers who work in community service stations, which are branches of sub-district offices, be included in the staff of government-affiliated institutions.

Song said that because the economy and regulations in different districts are different, social workers get different salaries depending on where they work, but that the average salary is now about 2,300 yuan per month, as of July 1.

He added that because the 5,000-graduate social worker target has already been met, there will not be much local government recruitment next year but districts can continue to recruit graduates if they need to.

Song said that because the civil service exam in Beijing will not be open to graduates without work experience in 2011, social workers will be the main source of civil servants in the future.

"This is a magnet to draw more people to become social workers," he said.