Job seekers communicate with recruiters at a large-scale spring job fair in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, on March 16, 2025. Photo: VCG

China has released new guidelines on building a high-quality system of employment services for university graduates, setting out the goal of establishing a nationwide employment services network that is inclusive, well-functioning and reliable within three to five years, laying a solid foundation for graduates to find jobs, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday.

It highlights six key areas of focus: optimizing the higher education training system, strengthening career guidance services, improving job-market and recruitment systems, enhancing support mechanisms for job seekers in difficulty, innovating employment monitoring and evaluation tools, and reinforcing support and safeguards for graduate employment.

The document said that by scientifically analyzing talent development trends and supply-demand conditions, a talent demand database will be established to conduct forward-looking analysis of talent supply-demand relationships. In addition, the scale, structure and quality of higher education should better align with the requirements of high-quality socioeconomic development.

It also specified that efforts should be made to explore the demand for college graduates from major national strategies, expanding market-oriented employment channels to cultivate new employment growth points. University graduates are supported to give full play to their professional strengths in employment and entrepreneurship in new forms and modes of business, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises.

In addition, the guidelines require the sector to strengthen college and university graduate employment service institutions, build a professional career guidance faculty team, deepen research on graduate employment and foster a fair employment environment.

"The move came ahead of this year's graduation season, which is timely and necessary as it puts forward a complete framework in terms of building an employment service system," Li Chang'an, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Li noted that the opinions, covering issues from education to training and employment, serve as a clear guideline for local governments, colleges and enterprises by clarifying their responsibilities, which will create a synergy to ensure the stability of the job market. 

Official data showed that a record number of 12.22 million college graduates are expected to enter the job market in 2025. The Government Work Report pledged to expand employment and business start-up channels for students and other young people, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

China has set a target for a surveyed urban unemployment rate of about 5.5 percent in 2025 and aims to create over 12 million new urban jobs.

Li noted that employment is the basis of people's livelihoods. Stabilizing the job market will not only increase incomes but also promote consumption, which is of great significance to economic growth.

China will allocate about 66.74 billion yuan ($9.22 billion) in employment subsidies as part of efforts to support local governments in assisting businesses to create more jobs, Fu Jinling, director-general of the Department of Economic Construction of the Ministry of Finance, said on March 17.

Fu noted that the new subsidies will be used to help local governments implement employment and entrepreneurship support policies, coordinate relevant funds and resources, promote full employment and improve job quality.