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.

隨著中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展速度放慢，失業(yè)率上升，中國(guó)的大學(xué)畢業(yè)生會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)在即將來(lái)臨的新的一年要想找到工作比以往任何時(shí)候都難。

專家稱一直以來(lái)的畢業(yè)生供過(guò)于求以及“高端”職位的不足已經(jīng)在不斷增加就業(yè)困難，而近幾個(gè)月的企業(yè)大量裁員及企業(yè)的倒閉更使就業(yè)形式惡化。

溫家寶總理告訴學(xué)生，畢業(yè)生就業(yè)問(wèn)題是“政府議程的頭等議題”。

中國(guó)將有650萬(wàn)畢業(yè)生在接下來(lái)一年中尋找工作。

政府稱將針對(duì)應(yīng)屆畢業(yè)生以及往屆仍沒(méi)有就業(yè)的畢業(yè)生設(shè)法新增900萬(wàn)工作崗位。

但那并非易事。中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)率預(yù)計(jì)會(huì)下降到八個(gè)百分點(diǎn)以下，也就證明達(dá)到了繼續(xù)創(chuàng)造足夠就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)的最低需求。

應(yīng)屆畢業(yè)生有三個(gè)問(wèn)題需應(yīng)對(duì)：

首先，經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展趨緩意味著就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)更少。

其次，普遍裁員會(huì)導(dǎo)致比往年更多的有經(jīng)驗(yàn)的人和應(yīng)屆畢業(yè)生爭(zhēng)取同樣的工作機(jī)會(huì)。

第三，有許多往屆畢業(yè)生仍然失業(yè)。

希望破滅

曹珊珊同學(xué)就讀于上海商學(xué)院，所學(xué)專業(yè)為會(huì)展策劃與管理。

她說(shuō)別人都認(rèn)為她畢業(yè)后會(huì)很容易找到工作，因?yàn)樯虾�將主辦2010年世博會(huì)。

但盡管她已經(jīng)在招聘會(huì)上參加了很多面試，還是沒(méi)能找到她想要的工作。

她說(shuō)：“我已經(jīng)結(jié)束了實(shí)習(xí)工作，那份工作和我的專業(yè)并不對(duì)口。”

她說(shuō)她的月薪大約230美元（159英磅），比她許多同學(xué)掙得都多，但遠(yuǎn)低于她的期望值。而她的許多同學(xué)不得不去做只有她一半薪水的工作。

她說(shuō)：“我可能再回學(xué)校攻讀碩士學(xué)位，因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在就業(yè)形式很嚴(yán)峻。希望有了更高的資格條件找工作會(huì)更容易些。”

不滿足于現(xiàn)在的成功？

一些來(lái)自一流大學(xué)的學(xué)生當(dāng)然還是能夠獲得高薪工作，但對(duì)于大多數(shù)學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō)最希望的就是能夠有份工作就行。--北京外企人力資源有限公司桑德拉•胡

中國(guó)近些年成功地進(jìn)行了高等教育的擴(kuò)招，也許有些過(guò)于成功了。

中國(guó)大約有6%的勞動(dòng)力進(jìn)入大學(xué)深造，這個(gè)數(shù)字遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)低于許多發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家。但仍然沒(méi)有足夠的高端工作崗位來(lái)滿足這些大學(xué)畢業(yè)生的需要。

來(lái)自北京外企人力資源有限公司的桑德拉•胡認(rèn)為就業(yè)市場(chǎng)還沒(méi)有相應(yīng)地迅速擴(kuò)大。

她說(shuō)：“一些來(lái)自一流大學(xué)的學(xué)生當(dāng)然還是能夠獲得高薪工作，但對(duì)于大多數(shù)學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō)最希望的就是能夠有份工作就行。”

她指出公司聘用那些可能因裁員從別的崗位下來(lái)的有經(jīng)驗(yàn)的工作者能夠節(jié)省開支。

她說(shuō)：“這些公司青睞有經(jīng)驗(yàn)的人因?yàn)楣�司不愿花費(fèi)資金去培養(yǎng)大學(xué)生。”

高成本

前些年吸納大學(xué)畢業(yè)生就業(yè)的工作崗位不會(huì)一直吸納現(xiàn)在的畢業(yè)生。

畢業(yè)生面臨經(jīng)濟(jì)蕭條環(huán)境下激烈的就業(yè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。但除此之外，最重要是畢業(yè)生的負(fù)債問(wèn)題。

另一位應(yīng)屆畢業(yè)生，來(lái)自上海外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)新聞專業(yè)的特里薩•嚴(yán)說(shuō)關(guān)于公共關(guān)系和新聞業(yè)工作的就業(yè)市場(chǎng)情況很糟。

她說(shuō)：“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，我的生活會(huì)過(guò)得特別艱難，但那正是現(xiàn)在就業(yè)市場(chǎng)上這類工作的行情。”

政府稱為像她這樣的畢業(yè)生創(chuàng)造就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)，以及為那些工廠倒閉后被迫返鄉(xiāng)的流動(dòng)打工人口尋找工作，已成為政府工作的兩個(gè)優(yōu)先考慮問(wèn)題。

政府這一做法的原因顯而易見，是擔(dān)心出現(xiàn)社會(huì)動(dòng)蕩。

大量受過(guò)高等教育的沒(méi)有工作的畢業(yè)生還欠有高額學(xué)生貸款，這可能引起一些社會(huì)問(wèn)題。

政府想要不惜任何代價(jià)避免其發(fā)生。