Under the planned economy, graduates of Chinese universities and technical schools did not look for jobs. The state assigned them, a system known as 包分配, guaranteed assignment. Graduates were expected to “obey the state’s assignment” (服从国家分配).
Reform began in the 1990s. The aim was to basically complete the reform of the graduate employment system by 2000. For graduates of technical secondary schools, state assignment ended around 1997.