Universities should foster more quality talents

The Chinese leadership has stressed that to address the structural employment problem of imbalance between human resources supply and demand, efforts should be made to speed up the development of human resources, optimize structure and ensure reasonable distribution of goods and services. It should be noted that promoting high-quality development and creating enough jobs comprise the new orientation and mission of the employment work in the new era.

China's human resources development has reached a major turning point and faces structural contradictions. From a high population growth rate, China is experiencing negative population growth and rapid population aging, with population mobility shaping the population structure in both urban and rural areas.

The population decline leading to demographic changes will create problems for employment generation and population development. Yet China will continue to be the second-most populous country in the world despite the declining fertility rate. China still had 864.81 million people aged between 16 and 59 years in 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. On the other hand, the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security estimates that by 2035 China's working-age population will decline to 788 million, meaning China's working-age population will still be double of the size of the United States' total population.