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.

随着中国经济发展速度放慢，失业率上升，中国的大学毕业生会发现在即将来临的新的一年要想找到工作比以往任何时候都难。

专家称一直以来的毕业生供过于求以及“高端”职位的不足已经在不断增加就业困难，而近几个月的企业大量裁员及企业的倒闭更使就业形式恶化。

温家宝总理告诉学生，毕业生就业问题是“政府议程的头等议题”。

中国将有650万毕业生在接下来一年中寻找工作。

政府称将针对应届毕业生以及往届仍没有就业的毕业生设法新增900万工作岗位。

但那并非易事。中国经济增长率预计会下降到八个百分点以下，也就证明达到了继续创造足够就业机会的最低需求。

应届毕业生有三个问题需应对：

首先，经济发展趋缓意味着就业机会更少。

其次，普遍裁员会导致比往年更多的有经验的人和应届毕业生争取同样的工作机会。

第三，有许多往届毕业生仍然失业。

希望破灭

曹珊珊同学就读于上海商学院，所学专业为会展策划与管理。

她说别人都认为她毕业后会很容易找到工作，因为上海将主办2010年世博会。

但尽管她已经在招聘会上参加了很多面试，还是没能找到她想要的工作。

她说：“我已经结束了实习工作，那份工作和我的专业并不对口。”

她说她的月薪大约230美元（159英磅），比她许多同学挣得都多，但远低于她的期望值。而她的许多同学不得不去做只有她一半薪水的工作。

她说：“我可能再回学校攻读硕士学位，因为现在就业形式很严峻。希望有了更高的资格条件找工作会更容易些。”

不满足于现在的成功？

一些来自一流大学的学生当然还是能够获得高薪工作，但对于大多数学生来说最希望的就是能够有份工作就行。--北京外企人力资源有限公司桑德拉•胡

中国近些年成功地进行了高等教育的扩招，也许有些过于成功了。

中国大约有6%的劳动力进入大学深造，这个数字远远低于许多发达国家。但仍然没有足够的高端工作岗位来满足这些大学毕业生的需要。

来自北京外企人力资源有限公司的桑德拉•胡认为就业市场还没有相应地迅速扩大。

她说：“一些来自一流大学的学生当然还是能够获得高薪工作，但对于大多数学生来说最希望的就是能够有份工作就行。”

她指出公司聘用那些可能因裁员从别的岗位下来的有经验的工作者能够节省开支。

她说：“这些公司青睐有经验的人因为公司不愿花费资金去培养大学生。”

高成本

前些年吸纳大学毕业生就业的工作岗位不会一直吸纳现在的毕业生。

毕业生面临经济萧条环境下激烈的就业竞争。但除此之外，最重要是毕业生的负债问题。

另一位应届毕业生，来自上海外国语大学新闻专业的特里萨•严说关于公共关系和新闻业工作的就业市场情况很糟。

她说：“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，我的生活会过得特别艰难，但那正是现在就业市场上这类工作的行情。”

政府称为像她这样的毕业生创造就业机会，以及为那些工厂倒闭后被迫返乡的流动打工人口寻找工作，已成为政府工作的两个优先考虑问题。

政府这一做法的原因显而易见，是担心出现社会动荡。

大量受过高等教育的没有工作的毕业生还欠有高额学生贷款，这可能引起一些社会问题。

政府想要不惜任何代价避免其发生。