Facing the graduation of a record 3 million college students
throughout China next year, the central government is set to launch
a nationwide service week from the beginning of next month as young
job-seekers prepare to leave campus next summer.
Hou Jianliang, vice-minister of personnel, announced at a press
conference over the weekend that the service week will be
officially launched from December 1 to 7 across China to offer free
services for next year's college graduates through online
information searching, on-the-spot consultations and face-to-face
applications in job markets throughout China.
The vice-minister made it clear that, cosponsored by his
ministry and China Human Resources Association, "the service week
will be held as a public welfare effort to help millions of college
graduates."
During the week, Hou promised his ministry will play a leading
role in offering related government policies for college
graduates.
Hou said he hopes "all employers can hire as many college
graduates as they can because, as a precious human resource,
college graduates have only made up a small part of China's huge
labor force."
"Making the full use of such resources is of vital importance
for China to carry out its human resources strategy to propel the
sustainability of the economy and social progress in building a
well-off society," Hou added.
College graduates in search of work will be "free of any
charges" when obtaining information collected and issued by
personnel agencies, registered job proxies and labor markets,
websites for professionals and college-based online services for
them, according to Si Yilei, executive vice-chairman of the
association.
"Graduates have to face fierce job competition next year, as
China has reported a peak in the number of graduates since colleges
and universities have enlarged their enrollment since 1999," Hou
said.
"Over 3 million college graduates are estimated to pour into the
job market next year, including 2.8 million of 2004's graduates,
marking an increase of 680,000 over 2003 and some 200,000 others
from the previous years."
Si said his association and its affiliated China National Center
for Human Resources, which boast some 4,000 members, have
accelerated their information collection and issuing for the
forthcoming week.
Information will be focused on employment of next year's college
graduates, particularly vacant positions of government agencies,
public institutions, the state-owned enterprises, private
enterprises, Sino-foreign founded joint ventures and high-tech
firms.
To date, at least 90 state-run and local job markets, 60 special
websites hunting for professionals have registered for the service
week, including seven regional job fairs covering most provinces,
autonomous regions, their capital cities and the country's coastal
cities.
To ensure the legal rights of job hunters, the association will
tighten its control over re-examination of related information,
screening out any false or fraudulent data intended to generate
illicit profits, Si said.
Two hotlines (010-8422-2648, 8422-6969) will be put into
operation for applicants to report wrongdoing or discrimination
they might experience during that week. College job-hunters can
visit www.newjobs.com.cn
for further information about the service week.
(China Daily November 24, 2003)