Several hundred graduates rushed to the first job fair for low-carbon professionals on Sunday in Beijing, but despite "low carbon" being a popular industry catchphrase, that was not the event's main attraction.

The job fair was instigated by the Beijing Instrument Industry Group Co Ltd with companies from the automotive and mechatronics industries attending. A total of 383 job opportunities were offered at the fair.

"We make many instruments to detect carbon emissions and our business is very much involved with low carbon," said Jia Shaowei, assistant general manager with Beijing Beifen-Ruili Analytical Instrument Company, which is affiliated with the Beijing Instrument Industry Group Co Ltd.

Jia said they planned to offer about 50 jobs and had received more than 100 resumes by 11 am.

Most of the job seekers were graduating students, he added.

According to Jia, the company wanted to use the job fair to publicize the importance of low carbon for business and society.

However, many job seekers at the fair were not interested in the low carbon issue.

"I only came here because they are recruiting graduates in my major. I don't mind whether the jobs are low carbon or not," said Lei Shuai, who is a mechanical senior student from China Forestry University.

Lei said he arrived at the job fair at 10 am when it was busiest and had given his resume to nine companies.

"I only know low carbon is an environmental protection concept," said Wu Jian, a classmate of Lei Shuai.

Wu said he just wanted to find a job.

Staff from companies attending the job fair also admitted they didn't see any difference between this job fair and other job fairs.

"The job opportunities which we are offering don't relate to low carbon directly, and I can't see the difference between this job fair and others we have attended before," said Wang Yunhui, an official with the human resources department of the Beijing Automotive Technology Center of the Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co Ltd.

She said they were offering more than 60 job opportunities at the job fair and that none of them were directly related to low carbon, although she did point out that the whole automotive industry was focusing on carbon emissions and the environment.

"We also want to pass on the message that we take the environment very seriously and that companies like us must take responsibility for low carbon," said Wang.