Macao's Labor Affairs Bureau Tuesday announced an internship program under which some 1,000 local college graduates of the 2008/2009 academic year will have the opportunity to work as trainees in major enterprises on the Chinese mainland.

The internship program will last for six to 12 months, which only college graduates with local residency are eligible to apply, according to the Bureau. Those mainland enterprises, where the Macao graduates will be trained, include banks, travel agencies and hotels.

Under the program, local authorities will grant a monthly accommodation and living allowance of 4,500 patacas (570 U.S. dollars) to each intern, and their traffic and insurance expenses will also be paid by the government. The program was estimated to cost the government a total of 50 million patacas (6.3 million dollars) for a year.

The Bureau also said that the program will be opened for application next month and the first group of trainees was scheduled to start working in various mainland enterprises in October.

In the second quarter of 2009, Macao's unemployed population was 12,000, with 90.6 percent searching for a new job, while 9.4 percent were fresh labor force entrants searching for their first job, according to the results of an employment survey released by the city's Statistics and Census Service.

(Xinhua News Agency August 26, 2009)