China's graduates will find it tougher than ever to get jobs in the coming year, as China's economy slows down and unemployment rises.

Experts say a chronic over-supply of graduates and a shortage of "high end" jobs had already been causing difficulties, but the mass lay-offs and Business closures in recent months has made the situation even worse.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has told students that the problem of graduate employment is "at the top of the government's agenda".

Six and a half million graduates in China will be looking for a job over the next year.

The government says it is going to try to create nine million jobs for them and for those from previous years who are still unemployed.

That will not be easy though. Economic growth in China is expected by some to fall below the figure of 8%, cited by many as the minimum needed to continue to create enough jobs.

There are three problems for the new graduates to cope with.

Firstly the economic slowdown here means there are fewer jobs available.

Secondly widespread redundancies mean there are more experienced people than there might have been in previous years, trying to secure the same jobs as them.

Thirdly there are many graduates from previous years who are still jobless.

Shattered hopes

Cao Shanshan studied exhibition planning and management at Shanghai Business School.

She said everyone thought it would be easy for her to get a job when she graduated, because Shanghai will host the World Expo in 2010.
But even though she has had dozens of interviews at job fairs, she has not managed to land the kind of job she wanted.

"I've ended up with an intern job," she says, "which is nothing to do with my major."

She says she is earning about $230 (£159) a month, more than many of her classmates who have had to take jobs that give them half that, but far less than she had hoped for.

"I might go back to school to study for a masters degree because it's so hard," she says. "Hopefully finding a job will be easier with a higher qualification."

Over-achievers?

Some students from the very top universities will of course still be able to get well paid jobs, but for the majority of students the best they can hope for is any job at all
Sandra Hu, Beijing Foreign Enterprise Human Resources Company

China's successfully expanded higher education in recent years. Too successfully perhaps.

About 6% of the workforce has been to university, far fewer than in many developed countries, but there are still not yet enough high-end jobs for graduates to do here.

Sandra Hu, from the Beijing Foreign Enterprise Human Resources Company Limited, says the market has not expanded nearly quickly enough.

"Some students from the very top universities will of course still be able to get well paid jobs," she says, "but for the majority of students the best they can hope for is any job at all."

By taking on more experienced workers who have perhaps been made redundant from other jobs, firms can save money, Ms Hu points out.

"They prefer people with experience because companies are not willing to spend money training the university students," she says.

High costs

Students are taking jobs that previous years' intakes would not have been willing to accept.

Graduates face fierce competition for jobs in the economic slowdown.But that does not always pay the bills, and most importantly the student debts.

Another of this year's graduates, Teresa Yan, a journalism student from Shanghai International Studies University, says the market for public relations and journalism jobs is really bad.

"I'm not from Shanghai," she says, "so life's going to be really tough if all I can find is a job paying $150 a month - the only kind of job that's really on offer."

The government says finding work for graduates like her and finding jobs for the migrant workers who have been forced to return to their villages after factories have closed are its twin priorities.

The reason is obvious. It is worried about social unrest.

Large numbers of highly educated, jobless graduates in huge debt from student loans could cause trouble.

The government wants to avoid that at any cost.

隨著中國經濟發展速度放慢，失業率上升，中國的大學畢業生會發現在即將來臨的新的一年要想找到工作比以往任何時候都難。

專家稱一直以來的畢業生供過于求以及“高端”職位的不足已經在不斷增加就業困難，而近幾個月的企業大量裁員及企業的倒閉更使就業形式惡化。

溫家寶總理告訴學生，畢業生就業問題是“政府議程的頭等議題”。

中國將有650萬畢業生在接下來一年中尋找工作。

政府稱將針對應屆畢業生以及往屆仍沒有就業的畢業生設法新增900萬工作崗位。

但那并非易事。中國經濟增長率預計會下降到八個百分點以下，也就證明達到了繼續創造足夠就業機會的最低需求。

應屆畢業生有三個問題需應對：

首先，經濟發展趨緩意味著就業機會更少。

其次，普遍裁員會導致比往年更多的有經驗的人和應屆畢業生爭取同樣的工作機會。

第三，有許多往屆畢業生仍然失業。

希望破滅

曹珊珊同學就讀于上海商學院，所學專業為會展策劃與管理。

她說別人都認為她畢業后會很容易找到工作，因為上海將主辦2010年世博會。

但盡管她已經在招聘會上參加了很多面試，還是沒能找到她想要的工作。

她說：“我已經結束了實習工作，那份工作和我的專業并不對口。”

她說她的月薪大約230美元（159英磅），比她許多同學掙得都多，但遠低于她的期望值。而她的許多同學不得不去做只有她一半薪水的工作。

她說：“我可能再回學校攻讀碩士學位，因為現在就業形式很嚴峻。希望有了更高的資格條件找工作會更容易些。”

不滿足于現在的成功？

一些來自一流大學的學生當然還是能夠獲得高薪工作，但對于大多數學生來說最希望的就是能夠有份工作就行。--北京外企人力資源有限公司桑德拉•胡

中國近些年成功地進行了高等教育的擴招，也許有些過于成功了。

中國大約有6%的勞動力進入大學深造，這個數字遠遠低于許多發達國家。但仍然沒有足夠的高端工作崗位來滿足這些大學畢業生的需要。

來自北京外企人力資源有限公司的桑德拉•胡認為就業市場還沒有相應地迅速擴大。

她說：“一些來自一流大學的學生當然還是能夠獲得高薪工作，但對于大多數學生來說最希望的就是能夠有份工作就行。”

她指出公司聘用那些可能因裁員從別的崗位下來的有經驗的工作者能夠節省開支。

她說：“這些公司青睞有經驗的人因為公司不愿花費資金去培養大學生。”

高成本

前些年吸納大學畢業生就業的工作崗位不會一直吸納現在的畢業生。

畢業生面臨經濟蕭條環境下激烈的就業競爭。但除此之外，最重要是畢業生的負債問題。

另一位應屆畢業生，來自上海外國語大學新聞專業的特里薩•嚴說關于公共關系和新聞業工作的就業市場情況很糟。

她說：“我不是上海人，所以我若只能找到一份月收入150美元的工作，我的生活會過得特別艱難，但那正是現在就業市場上這類工作的行情。”

政府稱為像她這樣的畢業生創造就業機會，以及為那些工廠倒閉后被迫返鄉的流動打工人口尋找工作，已成為政府工作的兩個優先考慮問題。

政府這一做法的原因顯而易見，是擔心出現社會動蕩。

大量受過高等教育的沒有工作的畢業生還欠有高額學生貸款，這可能引起一些社會問題。

政府想要不惜任何代價避免其發生。