The Skills Wastage of Contract Court Clerks in China: Assessment and Countermeasures

Skills wastage among contract court clerks in China is becoming a concern for the court system, as it raises the turnover of essential personnel. This article explores how and why highly educated recruits (‘talents’) are attracted to, and often leave, this job through interviews with 79 newly recruited clerks of two courts of a provincial capital. The interviews reveal that underemployment—a common cause of dissatisfaction—reflects rigid recruitment policies, an inefficient talent allocation mechanism, and fundamental institutional changes to career progression in this specific occupation. To alleviate the problem, the data collected suggest encouraging employers to adjust their recruitment policies and provide more employment and career guidance. As many of the new recruits leave provincial towns to seek fortune in the capital, and this raises the incidence of under-employment among newly appointed court clerks through fiercer job competition, skills wastage among court clerks could also be reduced by narrowing the gap among cities to make talents evenly distributed across space.