Survey: Most Chinese Parents Willing to Support Children Financially After College

Survey: Most Chinese Parents Willing to Support Children Financially After College
Jul 09, 2015 By eChinacities.com

Editor's Note: Most Chinese parents say that they would support their children financially after college, even if their children do not want to find a job right away, according to this article translated from the Chinese media. A recent survey shows that Chinese graduates are quite dependent on their parents and their parents are more than willing to help out. Chinese parents will even sometimes accompany their children on job interviews, or just find the job for them themselves!

More than half of parents of recent graduates from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics said that they would support their child financially after graduation if they did not have immediate plans to find a job or return to school. 70% of parents said that they would support their child financially after graduation so that they could “live a relaxed life.”

The above survey was done back in November 5, 2013, and it does not look like attitudes have changed much since then. Shanghai's National Bureau of Investigation Corps recently published a survey that underlined this fact. The survey, release June 29, was taken by 806 parents of recent graduates or graduating students in Shanghai.

Stable Career Paths

Parents value stability for their children and prefer for them to work in government jobs. 51.5% hope that their child will work in a government agency or institution. 27.8% want their child to find a job at a state-owned enterprise, and 14.6% want them to work for a foreign enterprise. Only 2.2% of parents want their child enter the private sector.

Stability is more important to parents than it is to the graduates themselves. In the same survey, the numbers for parents who prefer their child to find a government job are 18.2% higher than the number of students who hope to go into government work. At the same time, 17.5% more students hope to find jobs in the private sector.

Jobs at state-owned enterprises are also popular with parents. 64.6% of parents who work at state-owned enterprises hope that their child will follow their career path. 40.6% of state-owned enterprise employee parents want their child to work in the same unit as they do. In contrast, only 1.9% of parents working in the private sector want their children to follow their career footsteps.

The six factors that parents think are important for a job are: compensation and benefits, opportunities for household registration, the place of work itself, that the job fits with the character and interests of their child, and the culture and working atmosphere of the enterprise.

79.9% of parents believe that the “hard conditions,” of a job, or the pay and benefits are highly important. 67.3% believe that the “soft conditions,” or development prospects are important.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Why don't more parents think that pay and benefits are important? Well, the survey reported that only 71.2% of parents actually want their children to find a job right after college. This is lower than the number of students who want a job by 9%.

Parents will accept a diverse range of cities for their children to work in: 14.4% preferred their children to work in first-tier cities Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai or Shenzhen. 6.1% named Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and 4.2% said that location does not matter.

Only 30% of parents would insist that their child be financially independent after graduating. Parents expect their children to earn a salary of about 5100 Yuan right after graduating college. This on the low side for Shanghai graduates. Shanghai graduates expect about 700 Yuan more than their parents. Actual salaries are about 300 Yuan lower than what parents expect their children to earn.

When one's child is choosing their career path, who should they take into account? 95% of Shanghai parents believe that their child should think about themselves when choosing a career, and 72.3% said that one's parents' views should also be considered in the decision. 35.7% said that teachers' views should be taken into account. 87.3% of college graduates said that their own viewpoint is most important in their decision. 7.3% said that their parents advice is most important, and 2.9% said that their teachers viewpoints are most important

Long-Term Support

College graduates may not feel that their parents' viewpoints are important, but they seem to depend on them for help getting a job. Some parents say that they accompany their children to job fairs and talent marketplaces to hand out their resumes and even go on interviews with them. A number of graduates said that they do not plan to take their own imitative to find a job and are waiting for their parents and teachers to help make arrangements for them.

Some graduates do not plan to find work immediately after graduation, but will choose to move back home or travel. 55.6% of parents interviewed said that would support their child financially if they wanted to do this and 5.1% said they hoped their child would.

68.1% of Shanghai parents said that they planned to give their children long-term financial support. 37.1% said this is because they want to consider their child's long-term development and help provide economic security in their transition between school and employment. 34% said that helping their children financially would allow them to be more relaxed and light hearted. However, 31.8% of parents said they would not support their children after college because graduates should be able to support themselves.

Source: The Paper

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Keywords: China college graduates Chinese parents financial support

12 Comments

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Guest14335250

The pressure is so huge...

Jul 15, 2015 07:46 Report Abuse

RandomGuy

Gotta support their retirement plan.

Jul 12, 2015 11:36 Report Abuse

Guest2301262

At least read the title of this article, wumao.

Jul 13, 2015 09:25 Report Abuse

Guest2781358

Almost an entire nation of "only children" is not a good thing. These parents will probably fly out to S.E asian countries to find them spouses too

Jul 11, 2015 07:56 Report Abuse

Mateusz

Chinese parents... helping spoiled children grow into spoiled adults. So, Chinese parents are raising their kids to never think about anyone but themselves, to be irresponsible, lazy, and unmotivated, well after they are supposed to be mature adults and supposed to be starting their careers... and these same parents expect these kids to be their pension system, supporting them in their old age. Somehow, I doubt they thought out this plan.

Jul 10, 2015 07:00 Report Abuse

mike695ca

The ESL teacher calling chinese lazy, irresponsible and unmotivated. Whats that phrase about the pot, kettle and black? Im pretty sure you have actively bragged about how few hours you have worked. Do you honestly wake up and look at youeself and think you are the opposite of lazy and unmotivated? And I am sure you are the pillar of your community. So lets see. You are alone in China. You dont have to think about anyone but yourself. You do just enough to survive and after years on this site, no big changes. You just sit there. You are more irresponsible , lazy and unmotivated than any Chinese person out there! Yeah yeah yeah im bashing teachers. But the fact is Im not. Im bashing hypocritical racists that just so happen to teach.

Jul 19, 2015 16:13 Report Abuse

Mateusz

The phrase is about hypocrisy, like you calling someone immature. As I take my work seriously, it doesn't apply. You probably are sure of that, as you tend to live in your own reality, however, I never said that. Feel free to crawl about on the answers section to try to find evidence that I did. Otherwise, I'll dismiss your comments as unsubstantiated. No, I'm not alone in China, I think about people beyond myself, and have had big changes but continue. I'm curious about what other falsities you believe about me. Can you back up any of your assertions, at all? Prove I'm as irresponsible, lazy, and unmotivated as you claim, or be disregarded as an emotionally stunted man-child. You probably shouldn't be using words like "fact" until you understand that they mean. Maybe you can find an ESL teacher to help you with your English if you ask nicely. Though, I am rather flattered that I'm sure important to your life that you have to look for a 9 day old post of mine. Of course, when you have nothing of substance going on in your life, aside from bullying poor people (assuming half of what you post is true... keyboard warriors tend to exaggerate), you can spend hours on the Internet insulting people you never met.

Jul 20, 2015 03:54 Report Abuse

mike695ca

This is horrifying news.... you have a GF here? Why would you do that? Do you make her sit there with a water in a shitty laowai pub while you drill into her that she is a useless cow who should be lucky to have you? Did you beat the gold-digger out of her? As i wont go back and take the time to find a specific quote perhaps you would be happy to help me out as surely I am wrong if you feel you are so much better than everyone in China. How are you not irresponsible? Have you set up a retirement plan? Do you not show up hungover for class more than once a month? I find it hard to see how anyone can be called responsible in China , including me that is, so im curious why you feel you can call others irresponsible.Unmotivated and lazy? So please share. Have you travelled through Tibet? Mastered calligraphy? Got a degree? Started a business? Im not looking for much, just anything man. Anything that sais you didnt come to China and just sit there. Funny how I am a keyboard warrior for calling you a dick but you are on every post being a racist douche. This is not hypocrisy? Im not saying you cant have opinions man , even strong ones. But pick your battles. Haha what are you gonna do next? Go online and call NBA players short?

Jul 20, 2015 10:33 Report Abuse

Mateusz

We're not talking about normal. We're talking about China.

Jul 10, 2015 06:39 Report Abuse

acadet06

I think that Chinese students have tremendous pressure to excel in school and get into a good university. Its good that there parents are giving them flexibility after graduation. When I graduated, I moved back home and took some time to figure out what I wanted to do, traveled a little bit, and eventually found work on my own. You have the rest of your life to work, so why rush after graduating?

Jul 09, 2015 13:40 Report Abuse

coineineagh

"68.1% of Shanghai parents said that they planned to give their children long-term financial support." Having a gap year is fine, but this willingness to provide LONG TERM for working-age adults will just encourage Little Emperors to rest on their laurels. By the time they do find a job, they will be socially inept, prone to conflicts due to inflated egos, unwilling to put effort into a job, and with lazy minds unable to focus on their tasks. This is all the fault of an unhealthy obsession with safety and stability. Because the parents don't need their children to provide for them YET, they really don't care how their children develop. This is their way of "showing care" and "being generous" by spoiling their kids rotten, even well into their forties. Parents don't see a problem with hitting their children to force them to learn Chinese script, nor do they see the dangers of pampering them and giving false praise.

Jul 09, 2015 15:11 Report Abuse