China's State Council announced over the weekend a plan to provide incentives to job-seeking college graduates, including professional training and preferential loans for start-ups.

The government said it would help train 1 million unemployed college graduates in the coming three years to make them better qualified for jobs.

The Cabinet also said that civil service posts and state-owned companies should not charge job application fees from college graduates whose families are in financial hardship.

For graduates who are willing to work in rural areas or join the armed forces, the loans for completing their college education might be partially or fully waived, the notice said.

Labor-intensive companies are also encouraged to recruit college graduates, with preferential government loans up to two million yuan (US$293,000) for each company.

Any graduates who are willing to kick off their own business would qualify for small loans of 50,000 yuan each.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that as of Dec. 31, there were 8.86 million urban residents registered as unemployed, 560,000 more than at the end of the third quarter.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2009)