More graduates face struggle to find jobs

Only 40 percent of Beijing college students due to graduate this July have found jobs, lower than last year, according to municipal human resource authorities Tuesday.

There will be 220,000 graduates this year, an increase of 7,000 on last year, but only 43.2 percent have found employment or will continue their studies as of May 20. At the same time last year, 50 percent had secured jobs, according to a press release from Beijing Municipal Human Resource and Social Security Bureau Tuesday.

Fu Zhifeng, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, explained the low employment rate this year is because college students are apparently becoming more cautious in signing up for a job, and would wait and see if better opportunities will come up, especially as they will not actually graduate until July, the Beijing Daily reported Tuesday.

There is a great disparity between the top universities and the low level ones. For science- and engineering-based institutions like Beihang University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Beijing Institute of Technology, the employment rate is over 80 percent, but fewer than 10 percent of upcoming graduates from 12 universities specializing in the arts had found positions.

This may be because many arts graduates chose freelance careers, including performing in pubs or restaurants, according to the Beijing Daily.

Wang Dongwei, who will graduate from the law faculty at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that he signed up with a government department in Gansu Province, Northwest China, at the end of March.

"I can better develop myself in Gansu as there are fewer skilled people with a high education background than in the capital," Wang said, adding that he had rejected an offer from a court in Beijing.