Beijing Rolls Out Perks to Lure Young Talent as Youth Population Shrinks
Listen to the full version
Beijing has rolled out a new suite of policies to attract young professionals, including housing support and career incentives, as the capital grapples with a shrinking youth population and slowing influx of talent.
The measures, announced on Oct. 31 by five municipal departments, focus on attracting recent graduates to key sectors driving “new quality productive forces” such as artificial intelligence, integrated circuits and biomedicine. The policies include support for sci-tech small and midsize enterprises to hire graduates and pathways for founders of promising startups to obtain a Beijing residence permit. The permit offers many of the same benefits as a local household registration, or hukou, making it easier to buy a home and obtain a car license in the capital.
Unlock exclusive discounts with a Caixin group subscription — ideal for teams and organizations.
Subscribe to both Caixin Global and The Wall Street Journal — for the price of one.
- RELATED
- DIGEST HUB
Digest Hub
Back
- Beijing launched new policies in October 2024 to attract young professionals, offering housing support, career incentives, and easier residence permits for startup founders.
- The city's youth population (age 20-34) declined by 345,000 since 2023, with net talent inflow dropping from 1.5% in 2022 to 0.4% in 2024.
- Strict hukou restrictions and high living costs hinder talent attraction, while rival cities see faster growth in job applications.
- Zhaopin
- Zhaopin, a recruitment platform, co-authored a report with Zeping Macro indicating that Beijing's talent aggregation pace has slowed. While Beijing saw net talent inflows return in 2020, the net inflow rate has steadily declined, dropping from 1.5% in 2022 to 0.4% in 2024.
- Zeping Macro
- Zeping Macro, in collaboration with the recruitment platform Zhaopin, published a report in May that indicated a slowdown in Beijing's talent aggregation. This report highlighted a decline in the city's net talent inflow rate, which fell from 1.5% in 2022 to 0.4% in 2024, after a brief period of net outflow in 2015 and subsequent return to net inflows from 2020.
- Liepin
- Liepin is a recruitment firm. A report from Liepin showed that in the first quarter of 2025, job applications in cities like Zhengzhou, Hefei, and Dongguan surged by over 30% year-on-year, significantly outperforming Beijing's 17.7% growth. This suggests that while Beijing's talent aggregation pace has slowed, other cities with specific industrial strengths are attracting more job seekers.
- CX Weekly Magazine
Nov. 14, 2025, Issue 43
- Discover more stories from Caixin Weely Magazine.
- Read More>>
- PODCAST
- MOST POPULAR
Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook
Sign in with 财新