1. Song Xiao, ranked around 900th in Sichuan Province’s 2026 gaokao, gave up Sichuan University’s experimental humanities program for a tuition-free teacher-training program at Southwest University with a state-backed placement path. [para. 2][para. 4] She had seven days to decide — the typical window for gaokao applicants. [para. 5] The attraction: an “iron rice bowl,” or lifelong state job security. [para. 7][para. 8]
2. Job-market uncertainty has made stability the dominant consideration. [para. 9][para. 10] A 2025 Peking University survey found just 38% of graduates had secured employment; 29.6% had undetermined plans. [para. 11] A 2026 report from 51job found 25.1% were seeking state-sector jobs, up from 2025. [para. 12] State-owned enterprises were the top employer preference, at 36%. [para. 13] Programs leading directly to state jobs — teaching, military, police, customs — have become coveted, with admission scores at some schools matching elite Project 985/211 universities. [para. 14][para. 15]
3. Social media has fueled the rush: since 2021, influencers have marketed these programs on livestreams and short videos as “zero unemployment.” [para. 16][para. 17] The content flood has narrowed choices, with high scorers forgoing elite universities for certainty. [para. 18][para. 19] These accounts leave out the daily reality of such jobs; teenagers face conflicting pressures from the labor market, fragmented information and family expectations. [para. 19]
4. Song grew up in a single-parent household in southwestern China. [para. 22][para. 23] She chose the humanities track because “there are too many geniuses in the science track.” [para. 24][para. 25] Her mother warned humanities graduates had fewer options; Song narrowed her career list to lawyer or teacher. [para. 26][para. 27] Law seemed lucrative but her mother called it “a difficult road” and male-dominated. [para. 42][para. 43] After seven anxious days, she chose teacher training. [para. 44] She had only a vague fondness for teaching, and later reading teachers’ accounts of low pay and overwhelming duties deepened her doubt. [para. 45][para. 46]
5. Humanities graduates face a tightening market: internet firms, real estate and tutoring have cut hiring, while AI, semiconductors and new energy favor engineering. [para. 29][para. 30] A 2026 report found 43 of the 50 highest-paying majors were engineering disciplines. [para. 31] A 2025 MyCOS report found engineering accounted for roughly two-thirds of the top 50 placement-rate majors. [para. 32] Adviser Ye Feng said families of humanities students demand majors easing the civil-service-exam path. [para. 34][para. 35][para. 36]
6. Huang Xin, from an ordinary family, entered Central China Normal University’s teacher-training program with a score high enough for law or Chinese literature. [para. 49] She does not want to teach, but prefers it to law or policing. [para. 51] She will fulfill the six-year requirement but is “70% sure” she will not stay in a classroom. [para. 53] Her real aspiration is a company job at the local average salary. [para. 54][para. 55]
7. Military and police academies are equally sought-after: in 2026, 192,000 students applied and over 17,500 were admitted, with average rankings in the top 6%. [para. 58][para. 59][para. 60] Beijing Police College’s minimum male score rose for four consecutive years, to 540. [para. 61] Ordinary families see these jobs as absolute stability. [para. 64]
8. Behind the prestige lie closed, regimented management and no freedom to choose first jobs; military graduates may be sent to remote areas, police graduates to high-intensity grass-roots posts. [para. 66][para. 67][para. 68][para. 69] Adviser Yun Qian said “five-plus-two, day-and-night” schedules are routine, causing widespread regret. [para. 70][para. 71][para. 72] Some graduates try to transfer via civil-service exams; others retake the gaokao. [para. 73][para. 74]
9. Liu Zixuan, enrolling at a police academy in 2021, assumed he could return home, but was assigned to a distant grass-roots county post. [para. 79][para. 80][para. 81] He now studies part-time for public-security civil-service exams, with a deadline of age 30 before considering studying abroad. [para. 85][para. 86]
10. Medicine, once prized, has cooled: healthcare-payment reforms, centralized procurement, long training and heavy workloads have prompted reassessment. [para. 91][para. 92] In 2026, clinical-medicine admission scores dropped sharply in Shandong, Jiangsu and Guangdong. [para. 93]
11. The iron rice bowl is shrinking: the 2025 national civil-service exam planned 38,100 recruits, down 1,602 — the first reduction since 2019. [para. 95][para. 96] Police recruitment fell from 4,093 positions in 2023 to 2,604 in 2026; railway police dropped from 1,783 to 479. [para. 97][para. 98] Researchers link state-sector dominance to suppressed innovation and productivity. [para. 99][para. 100]
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