The starting salaries for college graduates have risen a bit this year, up 16 percent year-on-year, Beijing Evening News reported Tuesday.

The month salary for bachelor graduates rose 323 yuan ($47.62) compared with last year, up to 2,337 yuan ($344.54). The month salary for masters graduates was up 683 yuan ($100.69), up to 3,568 yuan ($526.02) this year.

The top three cities in terms of month salary for bachelor student are Shanghai with 3,367 yuan ($496.75), Shenzhen with 3,153 yuan ($465.17) and Beijing with 2,993 yuan ($441.57), the report said.

"The starting salary for college graduates this year showed a small increase over last year, when many international businesses had frozen hiring. But this year, the situation is much better," said Wang Tianpeng, vice president of Beijing-based recruitment solutions company, Career International.

Some graduates, however, still think their starting salaries will barely let them get by.

Lin Xinqi, director of the Human Resources department of Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that "it is hard to say whether the starting salary for college graduates is too low or not, after all, the price is given by the market."

"College students usually prefer big State-owned companies or multinationals, and they usually like to stay in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. This is also a reason for their not-so-high salary," Lin said.

Lin added that China now faces a structural imbalance in human resources. Some manufacturers in Fujian, Zhejiang and Shanghai found difficulties in hiring blue collar workers while big cities like Beijing and Shanghai are crammed with the highly educated white-collars.

Small cities or rural areas, however, almost completely lack white-collar workers.