A special campus job fair is held at Zhenjiang Vocational Technical College on June 2, 2022, aiming to boost employment of graduates and facilitate the resumption of work for local companies. Photo: IC

China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) plan to beef up hiring of university and college graduates this year, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday, citing fresh efforts by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) to address employment challenges as part of a broader push to stabilize the Chinese economy.

The number of job vacancies for new graduates at SOEs would increase this year from last year, the SASAC said at a recent videoconference on fostering employment of graduates. 

Centrally administered SOEs and local SASAC units were called on to explore more job vacancies and take into account both current hiring needs and the building up of a talent reservoir for there to be more job creation, Xinhua reported. 

The videoconference sought a coordinated recruiting push both online and in-person.

The SASAC didn't set a specific goal for the increase in SOE job openings for college graduates this year.

In the case of East China's Jiangsu Province, local firms falling under the purview of the provincial unit of the SASAC earmarked at least 50 percent of their 2022 annual recruiting numbers for college graduates, the Jiangsu-based Xinhua Daily reported earlier in June.

Local state-owned firms plan an increase of nearly 6 percent in their new hiring for this year, the report said.

A record 10.76 million students are graduating from Chinese universities and colleges this year, an increase of 1.67 million from the year before, piling up pressure on the job market. 

As part of broad-ranging moves to steady the economy, the State Council, the country's cabinet, has reiterated a call for stabilizing the job market, especially addressing employment issues for new college graduates. 

The surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.9 percent in May, down 0.2 percentage points from April. A total of 5.29 million new urban jobs were created in the first five months of the year, official data showed.

In May, the surveyed urban unemployment rate among those aged 25-59, the majority of the labor market, came in at 5.1 percent. However, the jobless rate among those aged 16-24, a group that includes new college graduates, hit a record high of 18.4 percent.

Global Times