The China Hi-Tech Fair Exhibition Center was crowded with university graduates seeking jobs over the weekend.

Nearly 80,000 students from across the country attended the job fair for university students who will graduate next year.

“We held this annual event one month earlier this year,” said Mr. Chen, an official from the Shenzhen Municipal Personnel Bureau.

He likened the fair being brought forward to “an early bird to catch the worm.”

Chen said the demand for university graduates next year by Shenzhen employers was a record 30,000. “Shenzhen has had continual rapid economic growth, posing a big demand for new workers,” Chen said.

There had been an increasing demand for university graduates by private companies.

In 2004, about 1,000 more private companies opened for business.

“The private companies will take 60 percent of the graduate recruits,” Chen said.

Compared with previous years, the source of student jobseekers has been expanded. With the provinces of Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi still being the main sources, more jobseekers had come from the northeastern part of the nation.

China will have 3.38 million students graduating from universities next year, 580,000 more than this year.

In November, Shenzhen sent out three recruiting teams to cities such as Xi’an, Chongqing, Chengdu, Beijing and Shanghai to recruit students. The teams were responsible for employing 9,000 people.

(Shenzhen Daily November 29, 2004)