Slashing general recruitment headcounts while aggressively competing for top sought-after talents: Have enterprises' talent hiring logics changed for the 2027 autumn campus recruitment season?
The "Golden September and Silver October" hiring season is drawing to a close, and the changes in the 2027 campus recruitment season are gradually becoming clear.
This year, the recruitment market shows a distinct disparity between hot and cold segments. On one hand, the four major state-owned banks have reduced their campus recruitment scales for two consecutive years, and the number of positions offered in the national civil service examination continues to decline; on the other hand, internet enterprises including Alibaba and ByteDance are still ramping up recruitment efforts for core technical talents, and competition for some in-demand positions remains fierce.
Behind the differentiation of the recruitment market lies another noteworthy contrast. Since the beginning of this year, the state has continuously introduced policies such as social security subsidies and job expansion allowances to encourage enterprises to recruit college graduates, but corporate recruitment plans have not expanded in lockstep.
From recruitment scale to job requirements, the 2027 campus recruitment season is presenting new changes: policies continue to encourage enterprises to create more jobs, yet why do enterprises still remain cautious about expanding headcount? Where are the limited recruitment budgets allocated to?
01
From Banks to the National Civil Service Examination,
Traditional Employment Entry Points Are Undergoing Changes
During this year's campus recruitment season, the recruitment scale of the four major state-owned banks continues to shrink.
In September, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank successively released their 2027 campus recruitment announcements. According to incomplete statistics from Yicai, the four major banks plan to recruit a total of about 64,000 people, more than 7,000 fewer than the previous year.
This is already the second consecutive year that the four major banks have cut recruitment headcount. In 2025, the four major banks offered a total of about 77,600 campus recruitment quotas, which dropped to about 71,500 in 2026, and further decreased to about 64,000 in 2027. Over the two years, a total of about 13,600 quotas have been reduced. The banking industry remains an important sector that absorbs college graduates, but the continuously shrinking recruitment plans indicate that its new personnel demand is becoming more cautious.
The national civil service examination has also continued the trend of recruitment reduction. On October 13, the 2027 national civil service recruitment plan was announced, with a total of 19,426 positions set aside for 35,691 planned recruits, 2,428 fewer than the previous year. Compared with the 39,721 recruits in 2025, the total reduction in two years has reached 4,030 people.
In addition to the decline in the total number of recruits, the distribution of quotas for this year's national civil service examination is more concentrated. In 2027, the tax system plans to recruit 24,013 people, accounting for 67.28% of the total number of recruits in the national civil service examination, further up from 65.59% in the previous year. However, the tax system itself has not expanded its recruitment. The number of its recruits dropped from 25,004 in the previous year to 24,013 this year, but the decline rate is smaller than the overall level of the national civil service examination, so its proportion has further increased.
The tax system has long been one of the systems with the largest number of recruits in the national civil service examination. Due to the implementation of vertical management, tax authorities at all levels from the central government to county and district levels supplement their personnel through the national civil service examination, so the recruitment scale has always been large. The further increase of the tax system's proportion this year has made the concentration of the position distribution in the national civil service examination more prominent. However, the total reduction of positions in the national civil service examination does not mean that positions for fresh graduates have decreased significantly at the same time. The State Administration of Civil Service disclosed that in 2027, the municipal (prefectural) level and lower-level institutions directly under central government agencies will set aside about 24,600 recruitment plans mainly for fresh college graduates, and the scale remains basically stable.
The four major banks and the national civil service examination have cut recruitment for two consecutive years, and the two major recruitment players that absorb a large number of graduates every year are reducing new quotas. Although the reasons for the adjustment are different, as the recruitment scale continues to shrink, the competition for positions faced by graduates this year has become more intense.
02
4.5 Billion Yuan in Job Stability and Expansion Funds Have Been Implemented,
Why Are Enterprises Still Cautious About Recruitment?
With banks and the national civil service examination cutting recruitment one after another, the capacity of enterprises to absorb college graduates has received more attention. This year, the employment stabilization policy continues to tilt towards enterprises, yet the recruitment market presents a situation of stark disparity between cold and hot.
Data disclosed in the "2026 Fresh Graduates Research Report" by 51job shows that 70.2% of the surveyed enterprises plan to carry out campus recruitment for the 2027 cohort, a slight decrease from 71.9% of the previous cohort. In the past three years, the proportion of enterprises that have reduced their campus recruitment headcount has increased by a total of 1.2 percentage points, while the proportion of enterprises that have expanded their headcount has decreased slightly, and about 40% of the enterprises maintain their original recruitment scale.
In contrast to the caution on the enterprise side, the employment stabilization policy is continuously increasing its support. In February this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance issued 16 policy measures to promote the employment of young people including college graduates, encouraging private enterprises, small and medium-sized micro-enterprises to absorb graduates. In June, four departments further extended policies such as unemployment insurance job stability rebates and one-time job expansion allowances. Data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security shows that in the first half of 2026, a total of 3.6 billion yuan in unemployment insurance job stability rebates and 900 million yuan in one-time job expansion allowances were distributed nationwide, with the two items totaling 4.5 billion yuan.
Policy support covers different links of enterprise labor employment. Small and medium-sized micro-enterprises that do not lay off employees or lay off few employees and meet the prescribed conditions can get a maximum job stability rebate of 60% of the unemployment insurance premiums actually paid in the previous year; enterprises that recruit young people including qualified college graduates, sign labor contracts and pay social security premiums as required, can get a one-time job expansion allowance of up to 1,500 yuan per person. Qualified small and micro enterprises can also enjoy social security subsidies for a maximum of one year.
With continuous capital investment, why are enterprises still cautious about recruitment? The distribution conditions of the two types of subsidies provide an observation perspective.
The job stability rebate mainly supports enterprises to retain existing positions, while the job expansion allowance is based on the premise of actual new recruitment. Enterprises need to complete recruitment first and fulfill corresponding social security payment obligations before they can get the job expansion allowance. Policies can reduce labor expenditure, but whether new personnel meet the business needs of the enterprise still needs to be judged at the stage of recruitment decision-making.
Along with the policy-driven cost reduction, the standardization of labor employment has also been strengthened. The judicial interpretation on labor disputes that came into effect in September 2025 clarifies that if the employer and the employee agree not to pay social insurance premiums, the relevant agreement is invalid; if the employee terminates the labor contract because the enterprise fails to pay social security premiums according to law, they can get economic compensation in accordance with the law if they meet the conditions. Enterprises that previously reduced costs by underpaying or omitting social security premiums need to recalculate their labor expenditure in accordance with legal requirements.
As a result, enterprises face two practical considerations in recruitment. Policies create conditions for retaining and expanding positions through subsidies and institutional support; when enterprises add new full-time employees, they need to continuously bear expenses such as wages, social security, training and management. One-time subsidies can reduce part of the expenditure, but the long-term investment required for new positions still needs to be supported by the operating income of the enterprise.
The 2027 campus recruitment season also faces the difference between the policy cycle and the actual onboarding time. The current implementation period of the one-time job expansion allowance and the one-time headcount increase and salary increase policy for state-owned enterprises will expire at the end of 2026, while most graduates of the 2027 cohort will officially join their jobs in 2027. Whether relevant recruitment can enjoy subsequent policy support depends on the policy arrangements at that time and the actual employment conditions.
Judging from the disclosed situation, the employment stabilization policy is reducing the burden on enterprises, but the campus recruitment headcount still shows signs of slight tightening. The difference between the two is closely related to enterprises' consideration of future business growth and long-term personnel costs. Policies can improve recruitment conditions, but new positions need to be supported by stable business demand.
03
Recruitment Demands Are Changing,
Who Exactly Are Enterprises Willing to Add Positions For?
When enterprises begin to re-measure the cost and benefit of new positions, recruitment budgets are also concentrated on a small number of key businesses. In this year's campus recruitment season, internet enterprises including Alibaba and ByteDance are still ramping up recruitment efforts for AI talents, and some in-demand positions even opened recruitment channels in advance. In contrast to the overall cautious recruitment scale, the competition for core talents remains fierce.
However, judging from the actual recruitment situation of enterprises, the job growth brought by AI is far less widespread than imagined.
In August, the "2027 Campus Recruitment AI Talent Market Insight" released by 51job shows that among 6,352 surveyed enterprises, 68.3% of the enterprises believe that AI has not significantly changed the total amount of employment for fresh graduates, and the impact is mainly concentrated in the adjustment of job structure. 7.3% of the enterprises believe that AI replaces basic positions and leads to reduced recruitment demand, while 6.6% of the enterprises believe that AI has spawned new positions and driven increased demand.
Even for enterprises that have already carried out AI talent recruitment, they generally control the number of new recruits. The survey shows that 56.8% of the relevant enterprises have expanded the recruitment scale of AI positions this year, but 62.4% of the enterprises recruit no more than 5 people, and only 5.9% recruit more than 30 people. The demand for AI talents continues to grow, but large-scale expansion is still concentrated in a few enterprises, and most enterprises tend to supplement professional talents on a small scale according to actual business needs.
The recruitment plans of leading internet enterprises further reflect the concentration trend of talent investment.
This year, in Alibaba's 2027 campus recruitment, AI-related positions account for 80%, covering eight job categories including algorithms, R&D, chips and products; all campus recruitment positions of Taobao and Tmall Group are in the AI direction, of which AI technical positions account for more than 90%. Technical and product positions of ByteDance account for more than 70%, and the demand for product positions has increased by 20% year-on-year, of which more than half are AI product positions.
Behind these figures, not only the proportion of AI positions is changing, but also the direction of enterprise recruitment resources. AI has become a key business of some leading companies, and model R&D, product development and technology application require continuous supplementation of professional talents. Therefore, even if the overall recruitment budget is constrained, relevant businesses can still get more recruitment quotas. Enterprises' control over personnel scale does not prevent them from increasing investment in key businesses.
This kind of investment is further extending to specific application scenarios. ByteDance has added new positions such as AI full-stack engineer and AI Agent development this year, while Taobao and Tmall Group has set up positions such as AI application R&D engineer, AI visual designer and AI experience designer. Compared with the early stage of concentrated recruitment of algorithm and model R&D talents, enterprises now need more talents who can integrate AI technology into products, design and actual business.
The survey by 51job also confirms this change. The demand proportion of AI application development engineers reaches 53.9%, which is higher than 37.5% of AI platform and framework development engineers and 33.2% of data scientists and data analysts. As AI moves from technical R&D to business application, enterprise recruitment pays more attention to whether technology can be transformed into specific products and work results.
While job demands are changing, talent screening methods are also being adjusted. This year, Alibaba added the AI Coding question type to the written examinations of its businesses including Alibaba Cloud, Tongyi Lab and Cainiao, allowing fresh graduates to use AI tools in a limited environment to complete project development. Enterprises have begun to incorporate AI application capabilities into actual assessments, examining whether candidates can complete tasks with the help of technical tools, rather than just understanding relevant technical concepts.
For a small number of scarce talents, enterprises are also improving recruitment efficiency. ByteDance has specially set up an "Early Bird Channel" for AI product managers this year, which does not occupy the formal campus recruitment application opportunities, and qualified candidates have the opportunity to get an offer through a fast recruitment process. Some leading enterprises also lock in core technical talents in advance through special recruitment plans.
The concentration of recruitment resources in key businesses has further widened the market value of different positions. Data from 51job shows that the median monthly salary of large model algorithm engineers is 27,329 yuan, that of AI product managers is 17,032 yuan, and that of AI data trainers is 8,977 yuan. Although this set of data reflects the overall salary level of relevant positions and cannot be directly regarded as the starting salary of fresh graduates, the salary gap between different positions still reflects enterprises' different judgments on technical thresholds, talent scarcity and business value.
As a result, the recruitment differentiation in this year's campus recruitment season has a clearer explanation. Enterprises control the number of new recruits in mature businesses and regular positions, but are still willing to reserve talents for new product R&D, technology application and key businesses. The limited recruitment budget is further tilted to positions that can support business development, and talent recruitment has shifted from the relatively extensive personnel supplementation in the past to more targeted professional talent allocation.
What enterprises have reduced is the regular personnel expansion, and what they have increased is the talent investment in key businesses. The cold and hot disparity in this year's campus recruitment season is ultimately reflected in the recruitment quotas, salary budgets and talent selection resources that different positions can obtain.
For graduates of the 2027 cohort, when the recruitment scale, job demands and screening standards change at the same time, the way of preparing for job hunting also needs to be updated accordingly.
First, more important than the number of positions is to see clearly where opportunities are flowing. The four major banks and the national civil service examination have cut recruitment for two consecutive years, and some large recruitment players that have long absorbed a large number of graduates are reducing new quotas. However, the shrinking recruitment scale does not mean that opportunities for all positions are decreasing at the same time. Facing such changes, instead of being limited to the number of recruits in a certain industry, it is better to pay more attention to the actual demands of specific departments, businesses and positions, and find the point where one's own experience can truly align with market demands.
Second, there is still a gap between policy support and enterprise recruitment in terms of actual employment demand. This year, the state has continuously introduced policies such as social security subsidies and job expansion allowances to encourage enterprises to absorb college graduates, but recruitment plans are still affected by business development and long-term labor costs. Recruitment quotas ultimately depend on whether enterprises have continuous employment demands. For universities and graduates, in addition to paying attention to the employment opportunities brought by policies, it is also necessary to pay more attention to the stability and development space of positions, as well as the real recruitment demands of enterprises.
Third, the job hunting competition in the AI era is shifting from "can you operate it" to "can you apply it". With AI Coding entering written examinations, and AI capability requirements added to positions such as product, design and analysis, "familiar with AI tools" is becoming a more and more common skill. What can really make a difference may not be how many new tools you master, but whether you can integrate them into your own major and practice, and finally transform them into a project, a work, or a real problem-solving practice.
From the shrinking recruitment scale to the differentiation of talent demand, this year's campus recruitment season also provides a new reference for university talent cultivation. Enterprises are paying more and more attention to the matching of professional capabilities and actual business, and the curriculum setting, practical teaching and employment guidance of universities also need to be more closely connected with industrial demands.
Job hunting is never a multiple-choice question with only a standard answer. Seeing clearly industry changes, understanding what positions really need, and finding the combination point between one's own abilities and market demands may be more important than chasing every recruitment boom.