Directive calls for incentives to attract university leavers to poor areas, easing competition for city work
The central government has given authorities at all levels until the end of this month to come up with incentives to attract some of this year's 4.13 million university graduates to low-level jobs in rural and western regions.
In a directive issued on Thursday, 14 central government departments, ministries and commissions urged local governments to come up with specific measures to help ease fierce job competition in cities and find quality employees for poor and remote areas.
The Ministry of Education estimates the number of university graduates will rise by 22 per cent compared to last year. All the graduates will join the record 17 million newcomers entering the labour force.
A National Development and Reform Commission report earlier this year suggested there would be 14 million more people than jobs available this year, a gap that has increased by 1 million places since last year.
Cao Shu, a director of the China Higher Education Student Information Centre, said the solution lay in 'working at the low level'.
'Local governments should put a long-term process in place to attract graduates. Currently, some places have fiscal problems. Graduates go there, but cannot get paid by their employer. There should be some system ensuring they get paid. Some places have worked out measures to exempt graduates from paying back education loans. That is one incentive,' Mr Cao said.