Lin Huijing, an MOE official with responsibility for college graduates, said the number of college graduates would rise by 670,000 this year, 46.2 percent more than last year.

Lin said the employment situation for graduates was not good, since more workers from both urban and rural areas were competing for jobs in cities, and an increasing number of jobless were returning to work.

The MOE would help provinces and regions set up special teams, offering consulting and training services on career guidance to colleges and universities, Lin said. The MOE would also encourage industries to recruit more college students.

She emphasized that career guidance should be an important guideline to evaluating higher education institutes, and the academic curricula of colleges and universities should cater to the market demand and the employment situation. Every 500 college students should have one teacher with experience in career guidance.

Lin said the MOE would also launch a nationwide information network for college students.

Statistics showed that by the end of last year, 1.16 million graduates had found jobs, about 80 percent of the total. Most of the others chose to take short-term jobs, and some were preparing for the graduate study entrance examination.

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2003)