A record 8.2 million graduates are expected in 2018. Obtaining a job is the first goal of most. Newly-upgraded first-tier cities have overtaken other first-tier cities in the eyes of the hopeful grads.

According to the "2018 Graduates Employment Guide" released by zhaopin.com, an online recruitment platform on May 31, 79.89% of 90,168 graduates who took the survey chose to get a job, a year-on-year rise of 6.39%. Entrepreneurship and further study overseas continued to decline.

Newly-upgraded first-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province; Chengdu, Sichuan province and Tianjin are now major target cities for graduates. AI development has brought employment pressure. Female graduates face greater pressure in obtaining jobs than males.

According to the survey, 73.23% of graduates consider "wage level" as the most important factor in choosing a city, which is followed by "city's future development prospects" with a vote rate of 44.77%. New upgraded first-tier cities are preferred by 40% of students, ranking first, a rise of 2.68% from last year. Those cities have also signed contracts with 34.47% of graduates, while the number for other first-tier cities is 29.29%.