That day I was still talking to my friends, feeling that there was no movement from those taking the postgraduate entrance exam this year.
Like me, who spends all day in the library, I also found that among those who are reviewing and preparing for the exam, nine out of ten are taking the civil service exam.
Not only are undergraduates not taking the postgraduate entrance exam after graduation, but even those who have graduated with a master’s degree are all taking the civil service exam.
I have a very good relationship with my junior sister, who originally had high aspirations to pursue a doctorate, and her supervisor basically trained her to pursue a doctorate. As a result, she decided not to take the exam this year and signed up for the national civil service exam and public institution training classes. She is writing her graduation thesis while reviewing for the written test.
A few days ago, my former colleague’s sister asked me to help her find some students to intern at their unit. I asked around, and the kids were all preparing for the civil service exam, and not a single one was looking for a job.
I saw this trend and thought, wow.
Today, the number of applicants for the 2026 postgraduate entrance exam came out, and it was indeed 450,000 fewer than last year.
However, the number of people taking the civil service exam has soared to 3.71 million.
01
It is obvious to all that the economic situation has been bad in the past two years.
Especially for many small-city families where both spouses are flexibly employed, and for the middle class in big cities, the impact is the greatest.
Small counties are places that cannot provide too many job opportunities.
The only decent and presentable job is within the system.
But how many decent job positions can a small city with a population of less than a million provide?
The answer is obvious, so, in small counties, the most common form is flexible employment.
Flexible employment refers to the form of employment that participates in economic activities through non-standard labor relations, covering various forms such as self-employment, individual business, and part-time jobs.
I think the original intention of the experts who invented “flexible employment” was good.
Because, this type of person can also pay social security and have basic social security, and it is also relatively decent.
But in today’s troubled economy, this part of the population is also quite difficult, after all, social security needs to be paid out of pocket, and they have lost their basic income.
I don’t know if you have noticed the shops near where you live, whether some of them haven’t opened for a long time.
On Saturday, I went to a very famous pedestrian street in Jinan, and my direct feeling was that it was half as busy as the same period last year.
I often go to that shop, and usually have to wait for a table on Saturday nights, but last Saturday there were still a few empty tables.
Many shops around there have also closed.
This is still in a provincial capital city, and the situation in the county is even more serious.
There is a shopping mall in my hometown, and there is a row of shops to the east of the shopping mall. In the past few years, friends often told me that they met someone they knew there when they went to eat.
I went home half a month ago, and the shops on that street were basically closed.
You say, where did these shop owners go?
Hibernation? Well, maybe.
02
Regarding the middle class in big cities, I don’t really have much personal experience, because I’m not even at the middle class level.
But based on my years of reading and reading newspapers.
When an economic crisis arrives, the impact on the middle class is the greatest.
A few days ago, I heard from a friend that a senior from the provincial TV station came to their unit.
A middle-aged man over 40 suddenly started to be a ‘Beijing drifter’ and came to their company to do new media videos.
As far as I know, the media has indeed been having a hard time in recent years, but I’ve never seen anyone go to Beijing to drift thousands of miles away from home.
Especially a middle-aged man who has been in the workplace for many years, no matter how difficult it is, he wouldn’t say that he has a family and goes to Beijing to drift.
This basically means that he can’t find any job opportunities in the city where he lives, and can only go to a bigger city to find opportunities.
I don’t know more specific details. The days of being unemployed in middle age are much harder than being alone.
But this is the reality for many middle-aged people.
Most of them, when they were young, walked from the countryside to the city, used all their family’s resources to buy a house, and then had children in the new city, and provided the best education for their children and the best medical care for their families.
In a sense, they have reached the middle class level.
But when an economic crisis arrives, this group of people is precisely the least able to resist risks.
The rich have abundant assets, and the slight increase or decrease in wealth has no impact on their luxurious lives, and they still come and go freely in high-end places.
The poor, although their income is meager and fixed, can barely make a living because of their simple desires and meager salaries.
And the middle class, in fact, has always lived in the imagination of having abundant assets in the future.
They are doing well because their expectations are good.
They are not doing well precisely because they cannot see the future.
Then what do they rely on to avoid risks?
Probably also on imagination!
03
It is said that this year’s civil service exam has even relaxed the age limit.
Undergraduates are relaxed to 38 years old, and graduate students are relaxed to 43 years old.
Some physical examination standards have also been relaxed.
I don’t know if this is a good thing for everyone.
At least it seems that the threshold is lowered, and everyone can try it, and there are more opportunities to get a stable job.
But the food in this job… I haven’t eaten it, I don’t know.
My friend who passed the exam said it’s delicious.
Then it should be delicious, otherwise so many people wouldn’t take the exam.
Speaking of which, does this mean that the postgraduate entrance exam is easier?
Actually, it’s not necessarily.
In my personal experience, the real competition for the postgraduate entrance exam only begins at the moment of the re-examination.
The preliminary examination screened out a large number of people who didn’t prepare well.
And the decrease in the number of people taking the postgraduate entrance exam, the most direct result is that there are fewer people who are just going through the motions.
In the past, college students blindly followed the trend to sign up, but now they don’t waste the 180 yuan registration fee and time.
In fact, college students are more clear-headed.
After studying for three years, you still have to find a job, why not go straight to work?
I feel like it’s like this.
In today’s world, the biggest role of studying for a master’s degree may be to escape reality.
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