The employment rate is defined as the ratio of the employed to the employable, including the self-employed but not including students continuing their studies after graduation. Source: Authors’ analyses based on MyCOS survey data. Countrywide surveys assessing education outcomes have been scarce too. The scores obtained at the gaokao exam (which conditions access to higher education) cannot serve as nationwide indicators since this exam is administered at the provincial level, with around half of the provinces and municipalities having their own exam questions rather than the national ones used by other, primarily less wealthy, ones. Exams at earlier stages, for instance to enter lower and upper-secondary schools (or even good primary schools) are even more decentralised - to the city, county/district or even the school level - hampering comparisons.