Second-tier cities engage in a \"battle to attract talent\": residence permits can be obtained with a graduation certificate, and discounts of 20% are offered on housing purchases and rentals

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Recently, Wuhan introduced an upgraded set of policies for college graduates wishing to settle there. Policies such as the ability to settle in the city with just a graduation certificate, discounted rates of 20% when purchasing or renting housing, and established minimum annual salary guidelines have attracted significant attention from the public. In recent years, in an effort to attract talent to settle there, many second- and third-tier cities have offered preferential policies for highly educated individuals in areas such as housing, household registration, and entrepreneurship support; this has been referred to by the media as a new round of \"competition to attract talent\". File photo: At some government service centers in Chengdu’s Tianfu New Area, long queues of people are waiting to go through the procedures for obtaining residency. The requirements for obtaining residency have been relaxed. Recently, the Wuhan Talent Recruitment Bureau and the Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a notice titled “Notice on Further Relaxing the Pilot Policy for University Graduates Living in Wuhan to Obtain Residency,” stating that university graduates living in Wuhan who are under 40 years old can apply to register for permanent residency in Wuhan using their graduation certificates; there are no age restrictions for master’s and doctoral degree holders. This news about Wuhan seeking talented individuals quickly became a hot topic of discussion in public opinion. In fact, in recent years, many second- and third-tier cities in China have successively introduced attractive measures to attract talent, issuing various guidelines and policies offering favorable conditions for university graduates. For example, Chengdu’s “Rong Piao” program introduced this year adopts a policy of \"settling down first before seeking employment.\" According to this policy, young professionals with a bachelor’s degree or higher, as well as skilled workers who have worked for the same employer for two years or more, are eligible to apply for residency registration. This year, the public security authorities in Jinan have also introduced new policies regarding household registration system reform and household relocation, significantly lowering the requirements for obtaining residency; individuals with a college or technical school diploma who meet the criteria can now settle in Jinan. According to data from the Ministry of Education, in 2017, 7.95 million people graduated from regular colleges and universities across the country, an increase of about 300,000 compared to the previous year. For university graduates entering the workforce for the first time, local employment incentives naturally influence their job-seeking plans. A \"2017 Fall White-Collar Workers’ Job-Hopping Index Survey Report\" released by Zhaopin in September shows that whether one has a household registration or not has a significant impact on the level of sense of belonging to a city. For job seekers, household registration, housing prices, healthcare, education, and other factors remain important considerations in their decision to stay in this city. File photo: Many college students gather at job recruitment sites in search of employment; there are also more generous living allowances. Looking at the policies implemented by various cities to attract talent, while household registration confers certain implicit benefits, the various subsidies offered by many cities to attract skilled workers can be considered genuine financial incentives. According to media reports, the subsidy programs provided for talents in various regions include housing subsidies, skill-level subsidies, and training subsidies. The largest portion of these subsidies is allocated to housing costs. Moreover, the requirements for qualifying for these subsidies are not high – one only needs to be employed locally and contribute to social insurance. For example, Nanjing stipulates that graduates from full-time regular universities (including those who have studied abroad and obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher), those who have acquired a technician qualification certificate from full-time vocational schools, those who are employed in the city within 2 years of graduation and have signed an employment contract with a duration of 1 year or more, and those who start their own businesses in Nanjing, are eligible to apply for public rental housing with an area of around 30 square meters or a rental subsidy ranging from 600 to 1,000 yuan. This year, Hangzhou also issued the \"Implementation Measures for Providing Living Subsidies to Newly Arrived High-Quality Graduates in Hangzhou,\" which stipulate that those who take up employment with employers in the city or start their own businesses within one year after graduation shall receive a subsidy of 20,000 yuan per person for master’s degree holders and 30,000 yuan per person for doctoral degree holders. The application deadline is within one year from the date of graduation, and the subsidy is granted in a lump sum. File photo: At a job fair at the Wuhan Naje Talent Market, it was crowded with job seekers who came to apply for positions. For college graduates, housing policies in different regions are certainly important factors to consider when deciding where to spend their youth. In media reviews of various places’ policies for attracting talent, compared to other incentives, housing benefits are more closely related to settlement policies. For example, cities such as Xiamen, Qingdao, Jinan, Zhengzhou, and Wuxi have relatively relaxed settlement policies, allowing graduates to be exempt from certain purchase restrictions once they settle there. Taking Wuhan as an example, the city’s latest housing policy for low-cost housing stipulates that more university graduates who choose to work or start businesses in Wuhan should be able to purchase such housing at 20% below market price, as well as rent it at 20% below market price; this is interpreted by outsiders as meaning that a 20% discount is available on both purchases and rentals. In Chengdu, the city has proposed various solutions to address the housing needs of those who work there, including talent apartments, rental housing provided as part of industrial new towns, and shift housing built by employers themselves. To facilitate fresh graduates from other regions who come to Chengdu to apply for jobs, the city has also set up more than 20 youth talent stations offering free accommodation for up to 7 days. Changsha provides rental and living subsidies of 15,000 yuan per year, 10,000 yuan per year, and 6,000 yuan per year respectively for full-time college graduates with a doctorate, master’s degree, or bachelor’s degree who come to work there, over a period of two years ； Doctoral and master’s degree graduates who work in Changsha and purchase their first home are eligible for housing subsidies of 60,000 yuan and 30,000 yuan respectively.