About four million of Beijing’s youth populace is working in non-state owned enterprises (SOEs), including individually owned companies, according to a survey conducted by the China Communist Youth League Beijing Committee.
The figure represents nearly 60 percent of all the youth in the China capital's work force and 68 percent of those who work in enterprises.
The wholesale and retail industry serves as the employer of the largest number of youth, with 714,200 young employees. This is followed by rental and commercial services (611,600), software and IT services (582,800), manufacturing industry (523,400) and scientific and technical services (256,000).
Meanwhile, the survey also shows that there is only a little difference between the incomes of young employees working in SOEs and non-SOEs. For private sector workers, the average monthly income is 4,413 yuan, while public sector laborers earn 4,261 yuan.
According to the results, 77.2 percent of youth in the private sector have no Beijing household registration.
A large 50.2 percent of people who graduate from universities outside Beijing work for China's capital-based non-SOEs, while 31.2 percent choose to work under government-affiliated groups. As well, 30.5 percent of non-SOEs' youth employees have been in the city for less than three years, in contrast to SOEs' 14.9 percent.
For the non-SOE youth workers, renting a room is the most common means of having a dwelling place. The survey shows that 74.5 percent rent rooms, and half of this statistic share their rooms with others.
Housing expenditure also takes a third of these employees' monthly salary, equivalent to 1,805 yuan.
According to the survey, the time allocation for youngsters in the private sector goes majorly to working, with an average of 8.8 hours per day. These youth spend 2.09 hours commuting, and leisure time is usually spent to go online, shop or watch TV.
Interestingly, 60 percent of these workers find time to exercise, while the remaining told that they have never exercised. Also, about 20 percent of the survey respondents stated that they never read or try to learn new things anymore, while 28 percent said that they still do. Of this portion of the workers, only 9.1 percent spend over 5 hours doing such routine.
Youth in non-SOEs also tend to maintain social relations amid work, with 30 percent using the instant messaging tool QQ, and 26.1 percent, WeChat. A fifth of the respondents also declared that they go online for about five hours a day.
Most of the survey respondents revealed that striving for success and realizing values are the main reasons for staying in the country's capital city. 37.6 percent of these young employees said that they would like to have a stable job, 14..4 look for a relaxing career, while 11.5 percent aim to contribute to social development through working.
Of the total number of respondents, who are mostly post-1985-born individuals, a whopping 90 percent said that they have taken into account having a development plan for the next five years, half of which declared that they would continue to stay in Beijing.
Those who have attained higher degree of education have a stronger will to stay in Beijing. The survey results reveal that more than 60 percent with graduate and post-graduate diplomas want to stay in the city long-term.
Meanwhile, 48.8 percent of the respondents have received junior college diplomas, 45.9 percent are high-school diploma holders, and 45.1 percent are junior high-school diploma holders.
The results of the survey also state a negative relation between diplomas and entrepreneurial drive. 14.5 percent of high-school diploma holders said that they want to put up a business in the city, while 6.2 of those with post-graduate diplomas have the intention to do so.