The SARS outbreak this year has further affected students' job prospects, because many job fairs and face-to-face interviews were cancelled from March to May -- the three months that are critical for these new job-seekers.
However, some students are optimistic, while some others are gloomy about the future.
Zhong Ying, a male student from southwest China's Sichuan Province who specializes in communications at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute, has already found a job in a State-owned firm in Beijing. Though refusing to give more details, Zhong said he is lucky enough to get a job on graduation.
Such specialities as information technology, including Zhong's speciality, as well as foreign languages are still popular in many work units.
The employment of college students faces such a dilemma in recent years: many students want to move to big cities and choose well-paid jobs, thus they are working hard to seek jobs in today's competitive environment. Whereas, relatively backward central and western areas, as well as some difficult jobs, are in badly need of college students.
In Nanjing University in east China's Jiangsu's Province, some graduates have found jobs but have not registered at their work units because they are not satisfied. Keeping a wait-and-seek attitude, they are still trying to seek better jobs.
The school authorities are persuading these students to take their jobs, because it is very difficult for students to get jobs this year.
Some educational experts said it is not that difficult for students to get jobs, as long as they are not too picky.
In the Qingdao University in east China's Shandong Province, 90 per cent of graduates have found jobs. Chen Hongjun, a teacher in charge of students' affairs, attributed this to employment and psychology education on students which was started in 1999.
Zheng Gongcheng, a professor at the Labor and Personnel Institute of Renmin University in Beijing, said there should be no problem in employing 2 million college graduates, as the country has planned to create 8 million jobs this year.
The key issue is whether universities have trained students who can meet the demands of employment market and whether students can rationally locate themselves, said Zheng.
Early this month, the Central Committee of Communist Youth League and the Ministry of Education launched a campaign calling on students to go to the west, an area which is in great need of skilled workers.
Those who are volunteered to go west have easily found jobs there.
Guo Qingfeng, who graduates from Xiamen University in east China's Fujian Province, has volunteered to work in the west.
Specializing in applied electronic technology, it is easy for him to find a job in Fujian Province. Guo has quit a big electronic company in Quanzhou of Fujian which has decided to employ him.
"I just want to gather more life and working experience to make myself more capable... Working in the west for several years can enrich my life," said Guo.
Guo was interested in patriotic films in his childhood and was deeply impressed by spacious and beautiful sceneries of western areas in some films.
In the Northern Jiaotong University in Beijing, 99 graduates have volunteered to work in western areas.
(China Daily June 24, 2003)
