The central government should do more to cut through red tape strangling the job market to head off looming problems for mainland college graduates wanting to enter the workforce as the economy falters, mainland analysts said.
In a push to address the problem facing many university graduates, the State Council issued a directive at the weekend urging regional authorities to scrap hukou, or household registration, restrictions on all college graduates.
The initiative came as authorities admitted that university graduates faced a tough time finding jobs this year amid a worsening economy.
A study by a central government think-tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, showed that 5.6 million college students graduated last year and 1.5 million failed to land jobs.
Graduates' prospects this year could be even gloomier, with a record 6.1 million students expected to flood the job market.
Rising joblessness among college students and the country's vast legion of migrant workers has alarmed the government because of the potential for social unrest.
The new State Council directive also makes a course on job-hunting skills compulsory for college students and promises to help 1 million jobless students gain work experience in the next three years. Analysts said that if the hukou barrier were removed, student job seekers could move about freely and settle where they found work.