China has rolled out multiple measures to facilitate employment for soon-to-be college graduates facing unexpected challenges brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Inspur Group, a tech company that focuses on cloud computing and big data, livestreams its job recruitment presentation at Tianjin University in north China’s Tianjin Municipality. (Photo/Xinhua)

The country will further subsidize enterprises’ contributions to social insurance premiums, cut set amounts of taxes and fees, and provide guaranteed loans to help companies ensure employment for key groups such as college graduates. China cut 123.9 billion yuan in social security premiums for companies nationwide in February, with the number from February through June expected to exceed 500 billion yuan.

The country called for market-oriented approaches to bring about employment for college graduates, and is also encouraging urban and rural communities to recruit more of this future work force. East China’s Shanghai plans to recruit over 1,000 new college graduates in the city to increase the number of community workers.

More options have been offered to ease pressure in the job market. At a press conference in late February, China’s Ministry of Education encouraged college graduates to pursue higher education and join the military. According to the ministry, enrolment figures for master’s degree students in the country is likely to increase by 189,000 this year, while bachelor’s degree programs will admit an additional 322,000 junior college students in 2020.

The country also called on companies, government investment projects and scientific research projects to provide more internship programs for college graduates.

Online campus recruitment drives jointly organized by colleges and employment service agencies have become the main channel for university graduates to find employment during this special period.

The Ministry of Education launched a 24-hour online campus recruitment program together with five major job-hunting websites in China last month, offering over 2 million jobs to college graduates. The Beijing Municipal Education Commission has been organizing online recruitment programs since February, attracting college graduates from universities including Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Renmin University of China.

In addition, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launched an online recruitment campaign for job-hunters, including college students, on March 20. On the first day of its launch, 950,000 companies offered 5.7 million job positions, said You Jun, vice minister of the ministry, adding that employers will be offering more than 10 million positions during the campaign.