By Lucy Hornby
BEIJING (Reuters) - Nineteen years after a brutal crackdownagainst student protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square,China's youth are more focused on iPods, designer jeans andbuying their first car than political reform.
Most of all they are worried about getting well paid jobsand a share of the newfound wealth that many Chineseprofessionals are enjoying as the economy surges ahead withdouble-digit growth.
That is easier said than done. Last summer, China had toprovide jobs for nearly 5 million college graduates. Thissummer, 5.6 million more are getting ready to move out ofdormitories and into the job market.
Often the first in their family to get higher education,these graduates of colleges and vocational schools have highexpectations that are not being met despite soaring economicgrowth as there are more graduates than jobs in China.
"There's a saying, 'as soon as you graduate, you areunemployed'," said Xia Ding, who got his degree last year and,like many of his classmates, decided to apply for a master'sprogramme when a job didn't come up.
The average employment rate of recent graduates was 73percent in autumn 2007, the China Daily said, citing Ministryof Education figures.
"The birthrate in the 1950s through early 1970s was veryhigh. The baby boomers born in those years are now adults,"said Ha Jiming, chief economist at China International Capital.
"Now it's the second wave, of baby boomers' babies. Theirchildren are now in their twenties and many are in college,"said Ha, whose research shows China will have a labour surplusthrough 2015.
Wide-ranging economic reforms in the last 30 years haveallowed students to dream of college rather than a factory job.
Colleges have built new classrooms and brushed up theircampuses, but their graduates often cannot compete with therush of students returning to China from overseas.
"College graduates want higher salaries but they have noexperience," Ha said, adding that companies would rather poachworkers than take a chance on a fresh graduate.
"Part of the problem is the local education system, whetherit has produced students who are suitable for society or justthose who know some basic concepts and can memorize," he said,referring to the system of rote learning that is standard inChina.
JOB INSECURITY
Most Chinese college students were barely toddlers in thespring of 1989, when a frustrated earlier generation gatheredin Tiananmen Square to demonstrate for political reform beforea bloody crackdown on June 4.
Inflation was one of the protesters' concerns in 1989.Today, inflation hovers above 8 percent -- well below the peakreached in 1994 but still worrying to central planners who fretabout social stability.
Today's generation worries more about getting ahead thaneconomic reform. Their activism is more likely to havenationalist overtones, as witnessed during demonstrationsagainst Japan in 2005 or outside Carrefour stores this springbecause of the French chain's rumoured connection withpro-Tibet activities.
But the government doesn't take any chances.
Internet access at China's prestigious Peking University ismore tightly controlled than it is at residences in Beijing,while other Beijing universities are ending term a few weeksearly this summer to make sure students clear out of the citybefore the Olympic games in August.
Even an outpouring of donations and volunteer efforts afterthe devastating May 12 earthquake was quickly channelled by thestate. Officials insisted that private efforts were "under theleadership of the Communist Party" and state media coveragefeatured government, party and army "heroes".
Still, the biggest challenge is to ensure the economicmachine runs smoothly for young people.
With one-third more graduates than jobs, the Ministry ofEducation has taken on the task of organizing job fairs bothonline and in cities. The noisy fairs attract tens of thousandsof young people who press up to booths, clutching resumes.
"A lot of us wouldn't mind if the system of job assignmentswas back in place," Xia said.
An older generation of graduates chafed under the jobassignment system, which guaranteed a job to every graduateuntil it was phased out in the late 1990s.
Before that, students scrambled to avoid being assigned topoorer areas, where salaries and career prospects were low, butthose without special connections could do little to avoiddead-end postings.
In today's competitive economy, the number of collegesgraduates is keeping entry-level office salaries low, leavingmany to worry about how they will ever be able to afford ahome.
Property reforms in the late 1990s sparked a real estateboom, making many rich but putting apartments out of reach foryoung people.
"There's a lot of pressure on graduates nowadays," saidXia's worried mother. She estimated that higher interest ratesmean a graduate needs a salary that clears 5,000 yuan (370pounds) a month just to afford a mortgage.
"They have to have an apartment and a car, otherwise how onearth are they going to get married?"
($1=6.932 Yuan)
(Editing by Megan Goldin)
