The campaign the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) launched nationwide on Sunday to help university graduates land jobs is of particular importance this year. It comes at a time when the spreading financial woes have made employment prospects dimmer than usual.

The so-called "employment weeks for university graduates" have been an annual affair since 2003. It is estimated that the 259 job fairs and the online employment services organized during the two weeks until the end of this month will provide 530,000 jobs.

True, the number is far from enough for the nearly 6 million graduates in the coming summer. The goal the ministry set two years ago to help 70 percent of the graduates land jobs will be hard to fulfill as many enterprises face too many financial problems to hire large numbers of people.

In the face of a harsh winter for employment, the MHRSS will have to do more to help graduates seek jobs. It can make use of the situation to formulate policies in order to guide and encourage college graduates to go to work at grassroots levels and the underdeveloped western provinces.

It is understandable that college graduates tend to seek jobs in big cities, which offer more opportunities for well-paid jobs. But this leads to two contrasting problems - over-crowding for well-paid jobs in big cities and a shortage of well-educated employees for vacancies in both governments and enterprises in underdeveloped regions.

The central government started a project two years to recruit 20,000 university graduates each year for five consecutive years to aid education, agriculture, health care and poverty alleviation in rural areas. They are required to work for at least two years where they are sent and are encouraged to stay there.

This suggests that university graduates are badly needed in rural areas and the situation is the same with underdeveloped western provinces.

For graduates who cannot land jobs in big cities, going out to underdeveloped provinces or seeking jobs at grassroots levels may be an option.

Instead of asking what the governments can do for them, graduates should ask what they can do for society, especially in these hard times.

The unveiling of the fiscal stimulus package for infrastructure construction and social welfare projects will open up new opportunities in the underdeveloped regions. And this may give fresh graduates more job options in those places.

The universities too have a role in this. They need to have special classes to teach students how to develop the right attitude in seeking a job. The students need to be told to not always ask whether there are jobs that suit them. They should be taught to ask themselves whether they are qualified to take a job that is offered.

(China Daily November 18, 2008)