A Review of Research on College Students' Employment Policies in China: Current Situation, Challenges, and Optimization Strategies

Abstract

Against the backdrop of high-quality development in the new era, the expanding scale of Chinese college graduates, coupled with economic slowdown and industrial restructuring, has led to structural employment pressure. Flexible employment, though a key transitional choice for new graduates, lacks a sound supporting system. This paper focuses on college students' employment policies, screening 18 authoritative documents via keywords "college students," "employment," and "policies," and categorizes them into four types: policy issue analysis, orientation & countermeasures, situation & evolution, and research in special periods/new perspectives. A policy focus, government-market roles, and research methods. Existing studies contribute significantly through interdisciplinary frameworks, scientific methods, structural problem diagnosis, and multi-level countermeasures. However, they have shortcomings: insufficient discussion on adapting to emerging occupations, lack of group need subdivision, over-reliance on Western models disconnected from China's reality, and inadequate policy dynamic adjustment and long-term evaluation. Accordingly, it proposes research directions on labor relations identification, skill training, social security connection, and inter-departmental collaboration in college students' gig and flexible employment, designing a framework including literature review, policy analysis, and mixed research. Future research should consider emerging technologies, regional differences, and long-term tracking, with theoretical significance in enriching policy research and promoting interdisciplinary integration, and practical significance in guiding policy optimization, supporting employment/entrepreneurship, and boosting social harmony.