At yesterday's nationally televised conference on graduate employment, Huang said this year's graduates were the first to experience China's reforms in increasing enrolments in universities and colleges, which meant the number of college graduates would be much greater this year than usual.

Huang urged all sectors of society to create more job opportunities for these graduates, and encouraged graduates to start their own businesses where local employment opportunities were limited.

Because most job fairs have been suspended in China due to SARS, the Ministry of Education recently asked universities to arrange small-scale meetings and interviews with potential employers and to ensure graduation-related matters proceed smoothly.

The ministry has called on local administrations and universities to help graduates with their job-hunting.

It has also asked universities and employment agencies to make full use of the Internet and other media to release job information and organize on-line recruitment.

Over 2 million students will graduate from university this year, about 700,000 more than last year.