Every year, a number of devout graduates visit the Sleeping
Buddha Temple on the outskirts of Beijing, praying for a decent job
just because Wofosi, the name of the temple in Chinese, sounds like
the English word "offers."
The number of people who turn to Buddha for help is due to rise
as more than 4 million college graduates a record high make the job
market more competitive and an ideal offer so hard to come by.
At a job fair yesterday at Peking University,
about 8,000 students came from all over China to try their luck for
the limited number of vacancies provided by more than 200
employers.
But to keep the site from being overcrowded, the organizer had
to bar students from other colleges, some even from other
provinces, until the afternoon.
Thousands of job-seekers, lined up for hundreds of metres
outside the hall, became yesterday's most conspicuous scene on
campus.
"I didn't expect the (employment) situation in Beijing to be so
tough," said Yuan Li, a postgraduate from Southwest China's Sichuan
Province.
Yuan, who studies manufacturing science and engineering, said
she has attended several job fairs since she arrived in Beijing in
mid-February, but has not received any ideal offers.
"I had thought my potential employer could give me a residential
registration, but now I have to lower my expectations because there
are too many job-seekers," she said.
"It has become impossible for those arriving from other
provinces and graduates with only a bachelor's degree to expect a
residential registration," she said, even though having that and a
satisfactory salary were regarded as musts only several years
ago.
Wen Weiyi, 25, a postgraduate of accounting from the
Beijing-based China University of Mining and Technology, said the
job situation is tough because the postgraduates who entered the
three-year programmes in 2003 and those who entered the revised
two-year programmes in 2004 will both hit the market this year.
"There are too many job-seekers and few openings provided by
prestigious companies," Wen said.
But even with a competitive job market in cities, few students
echoed the government's call to work as officials in rural areas
for a few years and enjoy a number of preferential policies after
they come back.
"It hasn't forced me to go that way," Wen said. Even though he
has not received any offers, he said he would not give up and would
land a job only in Beijing.
At yesterday's fair, the Shenzhen-headquartered Huawei
Technologies Corporation was one of the most attractive
employers.
Yang Jinxiang, personnel manager of the firm's Beijing research
institute, said she had received about 200 CVs by 11:30 AM and
expected more in the afternoon.
"The graduates came for our brand, our potential strength and
the company's culture," she said, adding that most graduates do
care about where they work and what kind of work experience they
can get from the company.
(China Daily March 3, 2006)