Job seekers get government help ( 2003-07-25 10:42) (China Daily)
Capital cities in South China's Guangdong Province and East China's Fujian
Province vowed Thursday to help university graduates, laid-off workers and
farmers find jobs in a grim employment market this year.
Jobhunters talk with company
representatives at at job-stand during a job fair held in the National
Agricultural Exhibition Hall in Beijing July 24, 2003.
[newsphoto.com.cn]
A special recruitment fair for graduates in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong
Province, will be held by the city's municipal government, according to Jiang
Yun, director-general of the personnel bureau.
The recruitment fair, which starts today, will be supplemented with an online
one.
It is free to both job seekers and employers, Jiang said.
More than 300 enterprises will offer over 3,000 vacancies at the event.
Jiang said the municipal government will soon set up a human resources market
exclusively for university graduates, with priority going to those from
Guangzhou.
The market will offer free career registration, job counselling, record
keeping, exams and help with further studies at home and abroad to Guangzhou
graduates.
She said the Guangzhou municipal government has set up a joint working
conference of leaders from various government departments to tackle the
employment squeeze university graduates face.
It has also offered preferential treatment, including temporary financial aid
and professional training, to graduates.
Jiang said it is very likely that employment pressure will intensify in
Guangzhou in the coming few years. She said graduates should re-adjust their
expectations of their first job.
Wu Tingshu is one graduate who is confident of finding a job in the near
future.
A Guangzhou resident, Wu graduated with a three-year college degree last
month, majoring in accounting.
She said the municipal government's efforts to help unemployed college
graduates find jobs had given her hope.
Of the 16,500 university graduates from Guangzhou this year, only 45.5 per
cent, or some 7,500 people, have found work so far, according to Guangzhou
Personnel Bureau statistics.
Some 7,000 graduates are still looking for work, while the remaining 1,980
graduates have chosen to continue their studies and to seek jobs next year.
Nearly 10,000 Guangzhou graduates - mostly those who completed three-year
courses -have been out of work since 2000.
The local government of East China's Fujian Province said it is also
redoubling efforts to help laid-off workers find jobs by offering training
programmes, information and employment fairs.
Municipal government spokesman Ma Bigang said at a press briefing in Fuzhou,
capital city of Fujian Province, that in the first half of this year, 12,546
laid-off workers were re-employed and 56,840 city job seekers found employment.
In addition, the government helped 5,849 farmers find jobs in the cities.
