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For Chinese college graduates graduating in 2023, the employment situation remains severe, as cited by many colleges in their analysis of the employment landscape. Besides the economic downturn caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, emerging new technologies, including ChatGPT, are also considered to have created an impact on employment.

A university in East China's Anhui Province used the word "grim" to describe the employment situation in 2023, The Paper reported on Tuesday. The university referenced a tightening  market demand for job seekers in 2023 and called on its colleges to take the initiative to help students find jobs, including cooperating with more alumni companies to broaden employment channels.

"This year is the most difficult year for employment work, especially the COVID-19 epidemic in the first half of the year has created an unprecedented impact on employment," said an official from a university in North China's Hebei Province, The Paper reported.

Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, there is increased downward pressure on the economy, the demand for jobs has decreased, and the employment situation for graduates has become more severe and complicated, the university said, adding that it plans to make timely cuts and replacements for majors with poor employment prospects.

In April 2022, the Ministry of Education pointed out that college graduates in 2022 faced multiple employment pressures. The reasons include tightening demand for positions, disruption of job search and declined recruitment due to the epidemic, and increased anxiety felt among graduates.

However, different from 2022, the employment situation analyses conducted by some universities in 2023 mentioned the impact of new technologies.

For example, the dean of a college of computer science in a university in Anhui pointed out that the number of graduates this year is at a new high, while the impact of new technologies such as ChatGPT is becoming increasingly acute. 

The college asked all major departments to take advantage of professional education and work to facilitate employment assistance and education.

A university in Northwest China's Liaoning Province said that this year's graduate cohort faces multiple factors such as complex and changing environment and new technologies, The Paper reported.

Another university in East China's Shandong Province said that in 2023, the structural employment contradictions have become more prominent, and the graduates have to face the impact of multiple factors such as complex and changeable external environment and new technologies.

The number of Chinese college graduates is expected to reach 11.58 million in 2023, an increase of 820,000 year-on-year.

According to a report on the employment of the 2022 graduates published by a job-hunting platform, among the 7,539 companies surveyed, 35 percent of them plan to expand their recruitment in the spring of 2023, 25 percent plan to shrink their recruitment, and 40 percent of the companies won't change the amount of recruitment positions. 

In terms of the increase in the volume of hiring positions, the percentage of enterprises with more than 50 percent increase in the volume of the job-hunting season in 2023 is 16 percent. Among enterprises with more than 5,000 employees, 38 percent of enterprises plan to expand their recruitment in the spring of 2023, and 29 percent plan to reduce their recruitment.