Relevant governmental departments and universities across the country are working hard to help this year's graduates find jobs, since the SARS outbreak has led to cancellations of many face-to-face job interviews and may hinder efforts to find employment.

Sources from the Ministry of Education said that more than 2.12 million college students will graduate this year, 670,000 more or 46 per cent up from last year.

Relevant experts said only 70 per cent of these graduates are likely to find work, while there may not be jobs for the remaining 30 per cent, which means about 700,000 graduates.

"It is hard to say what the employment situation is, now that students nationwide are looking for jobs, and their final employment results have not been released," said an official with the ministry's Department for College Students Affairs, who declined to be named.

The official said it is true that this year's SARS crisis does cause more difficulties for those seeking employment.

The ministry's preliminary statistics show that about 47 per cent of these students looking for work have signed contracts with various organizations.

The ministry opened the www.myjob.edu.cn website early this month to help link college students with prospective employers. To date, more than 280,000 graduates from 170 universities nationwide have put their academic resumes on the website, while nearly 2,000 employers have distributed 20,000 items on employment information throughout the site. Of those figures, some 90,000 students have found work .

The State Administration of Industry and Commerce has called on regional industry and commerce administrations to draw up a preferential policy to this year's graduates who look to start their own ventures.

Outside of fields forbidden by the government, which include recreation, advertising, sauna and massage establishments, Internet cafes and oxygen bars, those who open personal businesses can be exempted from registration fees within a year, according to the new policy.

In addition, Tsinghua University, the Beijing Normal University and many others have opened job fair websites, to help link students with work opportunities.

Representatives from the Southwest Finance University in Southwest China's Sichuan Province have invited 40 officials with 22 local banking, insurance and securities departments to the campus to showcase students for these groups.

Financial department officials have pledged to widen employing university students.

To widen employment opportunities for graduates, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Ministry of Education have also launched a campaign to encourage college students to work in the country's more underdeveloped western areas.

The campaign means that starting this year, education, public health and other economic sectors will recruit 5,000 to 6,000 undergraduates from universities nationwide.

More than 9,400 graduates from across the country have registered to work in western areas, China Education Daily reported.

(HK Edition 06/24/2003 page2)