To ease a chronic shortage of social workers, Beijing has eased restrictions on who can apply in its latest recruitment drive.

About 1,000 college graduates are to be hired to work in communities citywide by May, with exams for the first time open to people without Beijing residency permits.

"In the past, recruitment was mainly aimed at creating job opportunities to alleviate the employment pressure," explained Zhao Sen, who oversees recruitment for the municipal civil affairs bureau. "From this year on, however, the government wants to attract more elite young people to ease a shortfall of 200,000 social workers in the capital."

New rules state candidates need only be under 45 years old, have Beijing hukou or have been educated at a Beijing college. Applications will be accepted from Friday until next Monday.

He added that successful candidates without Beijing hukou will be given permanent residency in the capital after completing two years in the job. To ensure people do not quit shortly after, which is a common problem, new recruits will be made to sign three-year contracts.

However, authorities are yet to address one of the biggest problems in keeping staff: low salaries.

"I think the value of social workers is still understated in China, as is reflected from their average earnings," said Lin Tianyang, 28, a psychology major who will graduate Beijing Union University in the summer.

He told METRO that as a non-native student he would consider applying for a job as a Beijing social worker if it means he gets hukou - but it would not be his first choice.

"One of my classmates became a social worker in Chaoyang district in 2008 during the Beijing Olympics, but she wasn't satisfied with her salary. It was only 1,500 yuan a month," said Lin, who added that as soon as she got permanent residency she quit to work for a software company in Zhongguancun that offered more than three times as much.

As of July 1 last year, the average monthly salary of social workers in Beijing was about 2,300 yuan, according to Song Guilin, secretary of the Beijing Committee for Social Workers. He explained wages also vary across districts and counties due to different economic conditions and regulations.

The salary that will be offered to this year's batch of new hires has not yet been disclosed.