Yeah I've been beating this drum for months in this forum. There are simply too many people going to university, both in the West and in China. But the politics of rebalancing that ratio is very toxic because middle-class parents don't like to hear it.Its not just a issue of skill mismatch but there are simply too many college graduates and not enough jobs out there that requires a college degree.
One solution is make going to college harder so there are fewer graduates each year. While college graduates have difficulty finding jobs there are sectors in the economy that have skill shortages.
This is not just only happening in China but pretty much around the world.
It's not clear to me that having a declining population will be a bad thing given how fast AI is developing. I suspect very young countries will be faced with a gigantic youth bubble with low employment prospects. That is always a recipe for social unrest. The economy we live in now may simply need less human labour going forward.
I guess this also answers the question whether China should embrace immigration. Given that its own native youth are struggling in the job market, I cannot imagine how importing cheap labour from abroad would help matters.