BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.13, No.2, 2023 1715 

 

 

 

 

Who Chooses Teaching as a Career? 

Empirical Evidence from a Survey of 

College Graduates Employment 

By Xing, C. B., Cui, X. Y., & Jiang, C. 
Correspondence to: Chunbing Xing, Renmin University of China, China. E-mail: 

xingchb@ruc.edu.cn  

HE proportion of teaching staff in China’s labor force as a whole has 

been steadily rising. It increased from 1.99% in 1990 to 2.3% in 2015 

according to estimates based on census data. As a result of the expansion of 

higher education in China, the education level of the newly employed in the 

labor market has remarkably improved. In this process, one prominent phe-

nomenon is that young females with college degrees have outnumbered their 

male counterparts. These changes yield significant effects on teacher labor 

force supply. Consequently, teachers with a university degree or above pre-

dominate the teaching staff; the proportion of female teachers with college 

degrees is also rising. Hence, to better understand college graduates em-

ployment and the current state of teacher supply in China, it is crucial to 

study the factors influencing graduates’ decision on their career as a teacher. 

This study sourced data from Chinese College Graduates Employment 

Sample Survey 2019 by Peking University’s Institute of Economics of Edu-

cation. The survey included 14, 8, and 10 higher education institutions in 

eastern, central, and western China, respectively, covering “double first-class 

construction” universities, regular undergraduate colleges/universities, junior 

colleges, and higher vocational colleges. A total of 16571 valid question-

naires were retrieved, with 23% from junior college students, 63% from un-

dergraduates, and 14% from master and doctoral candidates. After eliminat-

ing those questionnaires with variable-related information missing, a sample 

of 5362 subjects was obtained, consisting of 745 teacher candidates and 4617 

non-teacher candidates. 

The research findings showed that students who majored in education-

related subjects, had higher levels of education, graduated from schools of 

higher rankings and obtained relevant professional credentials were more 

likely to choose teaching as their career; that the majority of teacher candi-

dates came from lower-level cities in the central and western China; that the 

educational background and birth place could more effectively predict fe-

male students becoming teacher candidates than their male counterparts 

while the school type had a greater impact on the male students’ decision on 

T 

mailto:xingchb@ruc.edu.cn


 

Vol.13, No.2, 2023 1716 

their career as a teacher than on that of female students; that graduates who 

chose to be teachers received lower starting salaries than those took up other 

professions and had a higher employment rate in central and western China; 

and that female teacher candidates’ career choice is determined by their per-

sonal preferences, consideration of job security, and willingness of serving 

the public and communities. 

 

 

Source: Educational Research, 2023; 44(1):144-159.