2010-07-22 00:26

BEIJING - The employment rate of Chinese college graduates in 2010 increased by 4.2 percentage points year-on-year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to Xinhua Wednesday.

As of July 1, a total of 4.56 million graduates had found jobs, accounting for 72.2 percent of the graduates this year, Zhang Haoming, deputy director of the education ministry's department for college student affairs, told Xinhua.

Zhang said the ministry had taken various measures to promote employment of the new graduates.

Up to now, education authorities across China have held more than 10,000 recruitment fairs, either on the spot or via the Internet, offering over 4.3 million job opportunities.

Further, over 8,000 lectures and forums have been organized to assist graduates who are about to begin their own businesses.

As of June 25, a total of 88,000 graduates had started their own undertakings, many more than in previous years, Zhang said.

Provincial governments also provide favorable policies to start-up enterprises run by college graduates, such as offering subsidies or tax rebates. For instance, Chongqing offers a subsidy to such startup enterprises, the highest being 50,000 yuan ($7,300)

Additionally, the ministry has boosted employment by encouraging graduates to teach at rural schools by offering favorable policies, ordering research institutes to hire more graduates as research assistants and encouraging more graduates to join the army.