The breadth and depth of bachelor-level business jobs in China: insights from online job posting data

This paper examines employment opportunities for bachelor-level business jobs in China using online job postings collected from 51job.com. We focus on two dimensions: breadth, measured by entropy-based indices of job dispersion across industry – occupation groups, and depth, evaluated through residual posted wages. The results reveal substantial variation across majors. Economics, Finance, and postings open to multiple majors exhibit the broadest coverage across industries and occupations, while General Business and Administration and Marketing are much more narrowly concentrated. Accounting and Management fall in between, though with different sources of breadth. Residual wage distributions show that Finance, Marketing, and Economics graduates enjoy stronger earning potential, whereas General Business and Administration and Accounting are skewed toward lower wages, indicating that breadth and depth need not coincide. Skill requirements overlap across majors, but differences in required skills explain little of the wage gaps, highlighting varying returns to similar skills.