Beijing will send 3,000 university graduates to work as junior
officials in rural areas this year, 1,000 more than last year, to
help build a "new socialist countryside" and ease employment
pressures.
They would work as assistants to village heads in the outskirts
of Beijing, said Sun Zhenyu, deputy director of Beijing Municipal
Bureau of Personnel.
The move would help train more grass-roots professionals to
serve the countryside and farmers, Sun said.
Meanwhile, the city would select about 1,500 university
graduates to serve as rural teachers and village doctors and
another 1,500 to offer volunteer services this year, Sun said.
The central government launched the "new socialist countryside"
initiative in 2005, in a bid to improve agricultural production,
living standards and public administration in underdeveloped rural
areas, where nearly 900 million of China's 1.3 billion population
live.
A string of measures have been taken to help build a "new
socialist countryside."
The central government issued a circular in July 2005, calling
on university graduates to seek jobs at grass-roots levels to
satisfy the need for professionals in rural areas and to ease the
employment pressure in cities.
"Grass roots" work has a wide meaning in China and includes
working in the less-developed western region, underprivileged towns
and rural areas, urban communities, medium and small companies, and
self-employment, all of which are traditionally seen as less
prestigious after higher education.
In response to the call, Beijing picked 2,000 university
graduates to work as assistants to village heads in the countryside
last year, Sun said.
Nationwide, about 150,000 university graduates found employment
at grass-roots level last year, according to the Ministry of
Education.
The government-supported move also created more job
opportunities for university students, who had found it
increasingly difficult to find work in big cities.
The ministry predicts 4.95 million students will graduate from
higher learning institutions this year, 820,000 more than last
year. About 1.4 million of them --- three out of 10 --- are
unlikely to find jobs on graduation because of a tight employment
market.
For Beijing, the number of university graduates will reach an
all-time high of nearly 200,000 this year, but only about 87,000
graduate jobs are expected to be on offer, according to the
Personnel Bureau.
"The situation is not optimistic," Sun said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2007)