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SCMP Reporter

Since September, Vanessa Li Jie has spent most of her time printing her resume, collecting job information, doing the rounds at employment fairs and running through interview questions.

'When can I get a good offer? I am really tired from the huge pressure and am going to collapse,' she  said.

The 22-year-old journalism major would appear to be an employer's dream. Apart from her excellent academic record, she was an exchange student for a year at Baptist University and interned during her holidays at a range of media outlets, including Guangzhou Southern Metropolis News and Hong Kong's Phoenix TV.

'My ideal job would be as a journalist for the Southern Metropolis News, but I think it won't be easy to get an offer,' she said.

Ms Li is just one of the millions of soon-to-be graduates  pouring into job fairs across the nation.

At Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University on Tuesday, more than 20,000 students braved bitterly cold weather to crowd into an undergraduate job fair to assess the 7,000 or so vacancies promoted by the event's 360 participating enterprises.

There were long queues at every stand and many jobseekers said they had to wait for more than an hour to hand over their resumes.

Last weekend in Beijing the organiser of an employment fair called in ambulances and security staff to ensure order as up to 30,000 holders of master's degrees put themselves forward for the 10,000 positions available.

Local media quoted the Ministry of Education as saying about 4 million university graduates could enter the labour market next year  - 500,000 more than last year.

The pressure to find a job is reflected in high classroom absentee rates at universities and colleges.

Xinhua reported that in Changsha , the capital of Hunan  province, 'skipping class to look for a job is a common practice among fourth-year Changsha university students. The average attendance rate is about 50 per cent'.

Shanxi's  Huashang Bao reported a similar situation in Xian , with some teachers cancelling class if there was a job fair in the city that day.

Along with greater competition for vacancies has come a decline in starting salaries. One Guangzhou medical institute is offering to take on graduates with master's degrees in medicine for as little as 1,500 yuan per month.

'Do we really have to face such harsh realities after studying hard for eight years and spending at least 100,000 yuan on education?' a medical student told the Information Times.

But students in western regions face an even tougher situation.

Zuo Xiaohui, a law student from the Northwest Institute of Political Science and Law, said the Xinjiang  High Court had offered to pay her 1,200 yuan a month.

Many graduates have lowered their salary expectations in the past few years, according to a Beijing Normal University study cited by the People's Daily online.  The survey results indicate undergraduates have dropped their bottom line from 2,000 yuan a month in 2001 to 1,500 yuan this year.

Other reports suggest that master's students at the Guangzhou and Beijing fairs would be willing to accept 3,000 to 5,000 yuan a month.

Yang Chengshun, who is studying for a master's in economics at Guangzhou's Jinan University, said: 'I modified my expectation from 3,500 yuan to 3,000 yuan after we met some people who had studied overseas. They said they were only asking for 3,500 yuan.'

Professor Qi Yeguo, from the Centre for Higher Education Research of East China Normal University, said the competitive job market was the result of two factors -  higher education  failing to meet   market demands and   a rapid increase in graduates under the country's college expansion plan.

Under the national expansion plan launched in 1999, university enrolments have increased by about 600,000  each year.  About 1.45 million people graduated from the nation's campuses in 2002, rising to 2.12 million in 2003, 2.8 million last year,  and 3.4 million this year, according to Xinhua.

But Xiamen University higher education reform specialist Professor Xie Zuoxu said the  expansion plan was crucial for raising general education standards across the country. 'If we don't, we can't guarantee the nation's future development,' the professor said.



Students jostle for a place in the workforce