Capital cities in South China's Guangdong Province and East China's Fujian Province vowed Thursday to help university graduates, laid-off workers and farmers find jobs in a grim employment market this year.

Jobhunters talk with company representatives at at job-stand during a job fair held in the National Agricultural Exhibition Hall in Beijing July 24, 2003. [newsphoto.com.cn]

A special recruitment fair for graduates in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, will be held by the city's municipal government, according to Jiang Yun, director-general of the personnel bureau.

The recruitment fair, which starts today, will be supplemented with an online one.

It is free to both job seekers and employers, Jiang said.

More than 300 enterprises will offer over 3,000 vacancies at the event.

Jiang said the municipal government will soon set up a human resources market exclusively for university graduates, with priority going to those from Guangzhou.

The market will offer free career registration, job counselling, record keeping, exams and help with further studies at home and abroad to Guangzhou graduates.

She said the Guangzhou municipal government has set up a joint working conference of leaders from various government departments to tackle the employment squeeze university graduates face.

It has also offered preferential treatment, including temporary financial aid and professional training, to graduates.

Jiang said it is very likely that employment pressure will intensify in Guangzhou in the coming few years. She said graduates should re-adjust their expectations of their first job.

Wu Tingshu is one graduate who is confident of finding a job in the near future.

A Guangzhou resident, Wu graduated with a three-year college degree last month, majoring in accounting.

She said the municipal government's efforts to help unemployed college graduates find jobs had given her hope.

Of the 16,500 university graduates from Guangzhou this year, only 45.5 per cent, or some 7,500 people, have found work so far, according to Guangzhou Personnel Bureau statistics.

Some 7,000 graduates are still looking for work, while the remaining 1,980 graduates have chosen to continue their studies and to seek jobs next year.

Nearly 10,000 Guangzhou graduates - mostly those who completed three-year courses -have been out of work since 2000.

The local government of East China's Fujian Province said it is also redoubling efforts to help laid-off workers find jobs by offering training programmes, information and employment fairs.

Municipal government spokesman Ma Bigang said at a press briefing in Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian Province, that in the first half of this year, 12,546 laid-off workers were re-employed and 56,840 city job seekers found employment.

In addition, the government helped 5,849 farmers find jobs in the cities.

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