A job fair is held at Huzhou Vocational and Technical College in East China's Zhejiang Province on November 12, 2022. Photo: VCG

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said it will make every effort to encourage college graduates to find employment and start businesses, read a notice issued by the ministry on Wednesday.

According to the notice, colleges and universities should create conditions to actively invite employers to recruit on campus. The MOE said it will give full play to the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in creating jobs, and encourage more college graduates to work in SMEs. The ministry will also support self-employment and flexible employment.

The expansion of local community-level recruitment is also encouraged, in sectors such as health services, elderly care services, social work, judicial assistance and scientific research assistants. The MOE will actively cooperate with the conscription of college students, read the notice.

The ministry stressed improving the linkage between employment and college enrollment and training. It will guide colleges and universities to focus more on majors that are in demand for enterprises.

The number of college graduates in 2023 is expected to reach 11.58 million, a year-on-year increase of 820,000, the MOE said on Tuesday at a meeting for the promotion of employment for graduates held with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

A series of campus recruitment activities for 2023 college graduates will be held from November to December, according to the MOE.

Provinces and cities nationwide have already started campus recruitment activities.

For example, the local government of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in Northwest China held a job fair with enterprises in early November, which provided more than 1,370 jobs and aims to recruit 10,600 people. About 21,500 graduates applied for jobs, and 8,000 reached initial employment intentions at the fair.

For Fushun in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, a total of 23 online and offline recruitment activities for college graduates have been held so far, providing 39,800 jobs for college graduates.

More job fairs are expected with policy support, which will effectively reduce the unemployment rate among graduates and young people.

In the first nine months of 2022, a total of 10.01 million new jobs were created across the country through policy support.

In October, the surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent, unchanged from the previous month, according to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.

The surveyed unemployment rate for those aged 16-24 was 17.9 percent and for those aged 25-59 it was 4.7 percent. The surveyed urban unemployment rate in 31 major cities was 6.0 percent, per NBS data.

Global Times