6.3m college graduates to challenge job market: Education Minister

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-21 03:41

BEIJING: China's Education Minister Yuan Guiren warned Friday that the country's record number of 6.3 million college graduates next year would pose "severe challenges" to the job market.

Yuan told a tele-conference that universities should offer students more professional job-hunting training, and adjust their curricular to fit the needs of job market.

However, the number of college students who found jobs saw a year-on-year increase despite the negative influence casted by the global economic downturn, he said.

Statistics from the China National Center for Human Resources showed 74 percent of the 6.11 million new graduates from the country's universities and colleges had been employed as of September 1, almost no change from the previous year.

The government has resorted to a series of measures to help college graduates find jobs, such as giving them preference in military recruitment and encouraging them to take grass-roots posts in the countryside and relatively poor western regions.

The Ministry of Education said in October that a total of 130,000 graduates from Chinese universities and colleges are expected to join the army this winter, a record number in the country that wants to uplift the quality of servicemen while grappling with job crisis.