Job preferences of Chinese PhD students in competitive labor markets

The job choices of PhD students have become an increasingly important topic, but there is a lack of research focusing on understanding the decision-making processes of PhD students when presented with various job options. Most of the studies have relied on the revealed preferences of PhD students than on their stated preferences but the latter is a more accurate form of eliciting decision-making processes. This study uses data collected from mainland Chinese PhD students based at Hong Kong universities through a custom-designed questionnaire to assess their job decision-making of various job scenarios relative to the competitive labor market of mainland China. Guided by Random Utility Theory, a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) method is employed, which is a novel approach within the field of higher education and effective in detecting job preferences. The findings show that salary, job security and sector of employment are the main attributes favored by PhD students when it comes to job preferences. Among these, salary stands out as the most important and overriding attribute. For the most part, no trade-offs between salary and job security were identified, and PhD students desire both, with a particular emphasis on a higher salary, as much as possible. These findings suggest that salary along with job security, are prime factors in job choices due to the need to survive in highly competitive job markets. This is further confirmed by the negligible preference for the higher education sector compared with the government sector, the latter perceived in China as a bastion of job security and stability (and prestige), and the preference for jobs in other sectors of activity if key job attributes are guaranteed.