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Abstract Background Given the demands for public health and infectious disease management skills during COVID-19, a shortage of the public health workforce, particularly with skills and competencies in epidemiology and biostatistics, has emerged at the Centers for Disease Controls (CDCs) in China. This study aims to investigate the employment preferences of doctoral students majoring in epidemiology and biostatistics, to inform policy-makers and future employers to address recruitment and retention requirements at CDCs across China. Methods A convenience sampling approach for recruitment, and an online discrete choice experiment (DCE) survey instrument to elicit future employee profiles, and self-report of their employment and aspirational preferences during October 20 and November 12, 2020. Attributes included monthly income, employment location, housing benefits, children’s education opportunities, working environment, career promotion speed and bianzhi (formally established post). Results A total of 106 doctoral epidemiology and biostatistics students from 28 universities completed the online survey. Monthly income, employment location and bianzhi was of highest concern in the seven attributes measured, though all attributes were statistically significant and presented in the expected direction, demonstrating preference heterogeneity. Work environment was of least concern. For the subgroup analysis, employment located in a first-tier city was more likely to lead to a higher utility value for PhD students who were women, married, from an urban area and had a high annual family income. Unsurprisingly, when compared to single students, married students were willing to forgo more for good educational opportunities for their children. The simulation results suggest that, given our base case, increasing only monthly income from 10,000 ($ 1449.1) to 25,000 CNY ($ 3622.7) the probability of choosing the job in the third-tier city would increase from 18.1 to 53.8% (i.e., the location choice is changed). Conclusion Monthly income and employment location were the preferred attributes across the cohort, with other attributes then clearly ranked and delineated. A wider use of DCEs could inform both recruitment and retention of a public health workforce, especially for CDCs in third-tier cities where resource constraints preclude all the strategies discussed here.

Abstract Background Pharmacists are a crucial part of the health workforce and play an important role in achieving universal health coverage. In China, pharmaceutical human resources are in short supply, and the distribution is unequal. This study aimed to identify the key job characteristics that influence the job preferences of undergraduate pharmacy students and to elicit the relative importance of different job characteristics to shed light on future policy interventions. Methods A discrete choice experiment was conducted to assess the job preferences of undergraduate pharmacy students from 6 provinces in mainland China. A face-to-face interview was used to collect data. Conditional logit and mixed logit models were used to analyse data, and the final model was chosen according to the model fit statistics. A series of policy simulations was also conducted. Results In total, 581 respondents completed the questionnaire, and 500 respondents who passed the internal consistency test were analysed. All attributes were statistically significant except for open management. Monthly income and work location were most important to respondents, followed by work unit (which refers to the nature of the workplace) and years to promotion. There was preference heterogeneity among respondents, e.g., male students preferred open management, and female students preferred jobs in public institutions. Furthermore, students with an urban background or from a single-child family placed higher value on a job in the city compared to their counterparts. Conclusion The heterogeneity of attributes showed the complexity of job preferences. Both monetary and nonmonetary job characteristics significantly influenced the job preferences of pharmacy students in China. A more effective policy intervention to attract graduates to work in rural areas should consider both incentives on the job itself and the background of pharmacy school graduates.

Abstract Background Shortage and mal-distribution of nursing human resources is an intractable problem in China. There is an urgent need to explore the job preferences of undergraduate nursing students. The main aim of this study is to investigate the stated preferences of nursing students when choosing a job. Methods A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted to assess job preferences of the final year undergraduate nursing students from four medical universities/colleges in Shandong Province, China. Job attributes include location, monthly income, bianzhi (which refers to the established posts and can be loosely regarded as state administrative staffing), career development and training opportunity, work environment and working strength. Mixed logit models were used to analyze the DCE data. Results A total of 445 undergraduate nursing students were included in the main DCE analysis. They demonstrated higher preference for a job with higher monthly income, and the probability of choosing a rural job would increase to 92.8% if monthly income increased from RMB 2000 (US$ 296) to RMB 8000 (US$ 1183). They expressed higher stated preferences for a job which required light working strength and with excellent work environment over other non-economic attributes. Among all attributes, location was the least important attribute. Subgroup analysis showed that students who came from city or county and whose family income was more than RMB 50 000 (US$ 7396) were significantly willing to pay more monthly income for a job in city. Conclusions This study confirmed that economic and non-economic factors both affected the job choices of the students. These results may be more effective for policymakers to perfect the employment policies and design strategies to attract more nursing students taking jobs in rural areas.