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Master’s or Mandarin?
China’s graduates face a whole new set of gruelling tests
They prefer certainty to good pay
Feb 5th 2026|4 min read
Around 2024 Mr Wang, a tutor for people taking** graduate-admissions tests**, saw the number of students in his classes plummet by more than half. At first he thought something had gone badly wrong with his teaching. But comparing notes with others in the industry, he found the problem was pervasive. Mr Wang had also casually posted an ad offering his services as a tutor for the national civil-service exam. He was shocked to receive hundreds of replies. His newly opened class was filled with top talent, including two students who had flown from Hong Kong after graduating there. “Holy shit,” Mr Wang thought. “The winds have changed.”
He is right. Young Chinese are rethinking the options they face when they complete undergraduate studies. Between 2023 and 2026 the number of people who registered to take exams for admission to master’s courses fell by a third, from 4.7m to 3.4m. Meanwhile, between 2021 and 2026, the number who applied (and passed checks) to take the national civil-service exam more than doubled to 3.7m, a record high. Interest in the latter now exceeds the former for the first time (see chart).
An attraction of a master’s degree is that it can upgrade one’s human capital (at least, in theory), while delaying entry into the job market. But the civil service offers a far more immediate reward: stable, if staid, employment. Stella Zhou, who is 24, attended a tutoring camp for the civil-service exam. For three months she started the day at 9am and slogged through thousands of practice questions, only retiring to her dormitory after 9pm. “My bum hurt from sitting all day,” she gripes.
Last year about 20% of those who took the exam for admission to a master’s course were accepted. The national civil-service exam is far more competitive. This year there are 38,000 positions available, meaning about 99% of those who took the written test in November (including many postgraduates) will be disappointed by the time the process, which also includes interviews, wraps up in the middle of the year. A 26-year-old woman, Ms Ma, is studying for a master’s degree in law. Some 80% of her class are planning to take the civil-service exam. It is a “battle royale”, she says (having a master’s degree confers little advantage for civil-service jobs, most of which do not require one). Because success is so unlikely, many are also sitting provincial- or city-level civil-service exams as a less prestigious back-up.
The reason is clear: a bleak job market. Ms Ma, who is from the eastern province of Shandong, had never thought she would be interested in the civil service. She changed her mind after working as an intern at a small company: her colleagues were often not paid on time. When China was booming, government jobs were thought dull (“If you become a civil servant, you can see the whole of your life,” as a common saying goes). Now, as the economy falters, they are highly sought-after. Ms Zhou, who is from the south-western region of Chongqing, received an offer of 300,000 yuan ($43,000) per year from JD.com, an e-commerce giant, to work in its procurement arm. But she turned it down to try her luck with the civil service. Young people increasingly prefer certainty to good pay.
Between 2020 and 2022, when China imposed a strict “zero-covid” policy, many students swarmed into postgraduate studies as a way of postponing the job hunt during economic turbulence (in China, a master’s often takes three years). Since then, the number sitting the master’s entrance exam has dropped. It has become clearer that staying in education produces diminishing returns. A survey in 2024 by Zhaopin, a hiring platform, found that by the spring recruitment round, 44.4% of postgraduates had received a job offer—one percentage point lower than those with bachelor’s degrees and 12 points below those with vocational training. It might be expected that many would apply for a master’s after failing the civil-service exam. But many graduates fear the job market could get worse. Better to take the plunge sooner rather than later, some reckon.
So the rise in applications for the civil service and fall in demand for graduate courses are two sides of the same coin: a weak economy. It could become a self-reinforcing trend: the more that talented youngsters **turn their backs on **the private sector and seek government jobs, the less vigorous China’s economy will become. ■
中國畢業生面臨全新嚴峻考驗：比起高薪，他們更求穩定
2026年2月5日 | 閱讀時間 4 分鐘
約莫在 2024 年，專門輔導研究生入學考試的王老師發現，他班上的學生人數驟減了一半以上。起初，他以為是自己的教學出了問題，但與同業交換意見後，他發現這是整個行業普遍面臨的困境。與此同時，王老師隨手發布了一則國家公務員考試（國考）的補習廣告，驚訝地收到數百則回覆。他新開設的班級擠滿了頂尖人才，其中甚至有兩名學生是從香港畢業後專程飛回來的。王老師心想：「天哪，風向變了。」
他是對的。中國年輕人正在重新思考大學畢業後的出路。2023 年至 2026 年間，報考碩士班入學考試的人數減少了三分之一，從 470 萬人降至 340 萬人。與此同時，2021 年至 2026 年間，通過審核報考國考的人數翻了一倍多，達到 370 萬人的歷史新高。對後者的興趣已首度超越前
。
碩士學位的吸引力在於理論上能提升「人力資本」，同時延緩進入職場的時間。然而，公務員職位提供了一個更直接的回報：穩定（儘管沉悶）的就業。24 歲的周小姐參加了國考衝刺班，三個月來，她每天早上 9 點開始埋頭苦讀數千道練習題，直到晚上 9 點後才回宿舍。「整天坐著，坐到我屁股都痛了，」她抱怨道。
去年，碩士入學考試的錄取率約為 20%，而國考的競爭更為激烈。今年僅提供 38,000 個職位，這意味著 11 月參加筆試的人（包括許多研究生）中，約有 99% 的人最終會失望而歸。26 歲的馬小姐正在攻讀法律碩士，她班上約 80% 的同學都計劃報考公務員。她形容這是一場「大逃殺」（儘管碩士學位對大多數不要求學歷的公務員職位並無顯著優勢）。由於成功機會微乎其微，許多人也報考了省級或市級公務員考試，作為退而求其次的備選。
原因很明顯：就業市場低迷。來自山東省的馬小姐從未想過自己會對公務員感興趣，但在一家小公司實習後，她改變了主意——因為她的同事經常無法準時領到薪水。在中國經濟蓬勃發展的時期，政府工作被認為是枯燥的（當時流行一句話：「當了公務員，一眼就能望穿一生」）。
現在，隨著經濟步履蹣跚，這些職位變得炙手可熱。來自重慶的周小姐曾獲得電商巨頭京東（JD.com）提供的採購部職位，年薪高達 30 萬人民幣（約 43,000 美元），但她拒絕了，決定轉向公務員試試運氣。年輕人越來越傾向於選擇「確定性」而非「高薪」。
2020 年至 2022 年中國實施嚴格的「動態清零」政策期間，許多學生湧入研究所，將其視為經濟動盪期推遲求職的一種方式（在中國，碩士學位通常需要三年）。從那時起，報考研究所的人數開始下降，人們愈發意識到，留在教育體系中的邊際收益正在遞減。招聘平台「智聯招聘」2024 年的一項調查顯示，在春季招聘中，僅有 44.4% 的研究生獲得錄取通知（Offer），這比大學畢業生低 1 個百分點，比技職生低了 12 個百分點。原以為許多人在國考失利後會轉而考研，但不少畢業生擔心就業市場會進一步惡化，因此有人認為，與其等待，不如儘早投入職場放手一搏。
因此，公務員報考熱與研究所需求降溫，實為經濟疲軟的一體兩面。這可能演變成一種自我強化的趨勢：越多優秀人才背離私營部門轉向政府職位，中國經濟的活力就越發衰微。
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