When China Agricultural University graduate Wang Zhizhi decided to compete for one of 1,600 "cunguan" posts on offer in rural areas outside Beijing, he also selected to abandon six months of fruitless job hunting in Beijing.

"I refused a sales job because this work can provide me with more experience," he told China Daily.

Twenty-two-year-old Wang is from a farming family in Henan province that became poorer after his father died when Wang was young.

He was offered the chance to work as a salesman with an exporting company, and the salary was 2,000 yuan ($290), which was similar to the wage offered in the cunguan program.

"The cunguan program will provide me with more stable work and the chance to continue learning," he said.

"I am a rural boy myself, so I am more interested in rural economic development."

Wang was among many graduates who expressed an interest in the cunguan program - village leadership posts - that will be offered through the city's Human Resources and Social Security Bureau during a job fair from May 5 -15.

The posts are especially popular among graduates who have been unable to secure a job in the city.

At the fair, the 1,600 posts, assistants to village Party secretaries and assistants to the heads of villagers' committees will be on offer.

Successful candidates will sign a three-year contract and earn around 2,000 yuan during the first year and see that salary rise by 500 yuan in subsequent years.

Those graduates who complete the three years will get 10 additional marks on the entrance exam for postgraduate study. And they will get priority over other competitors for entry to those post-graduate institutions.

This will be the second time university graduates in Beijing have been invited to work at grassroots level on the cunguan project.

Governments in 23 provinces have initiated similar programs to help stimulate the job market for graduates during the economic downturn this year.

Zhejiang province has made available 20,000 new social worker posts and 10,000 other posts in its rural region, said a report from China Youth Daily yesterday. And Shanghai provides favorable loans to students wanting to start their own businesses.

The central government issued a circular in July 2005, calling on university graduates to seek jobs at the grassroots level so as to reverse the shortage of professionals in rural areas and to ease unemployment in cities.

(China Daily May 1, 2009)