The "poor 2nd generation", a latest term from a same-titled blog article that highlights those who were born from poor families and are now facing a worst ever dilemma in job hunting after college graduation, has become one of the hottest searched terms on google.cn.

Created by an article on sina.com.cn, senior news story writer and commentator Shi Shusi showed big sympathy to boys and girls from "poor 2nd generation" families, who now face more disadvantages in getting themselves employed in a society where bigger polarization between the rich and the poor is fastly developing.

A report of the China Youth Daily says graduates from 'poor 2nd generation' families have to rely upon themselves to find a job, without any social connections or outside help.

Meanwhile, based on a related survey conducted in seven Chinese colleges by China Youth Daily, 70 percent of graduates agreed that they face family background pressures and expensive jobhunting costs when they go and find a job. They also find it difficult to compete against their counterparts who are from richer families. Moreover, 65 percent of college graduates say they have to take their family backgrounds into serious consideration before such factors may really hamper their job hunting efforts.

The survey also revealed that most employers' human resources departments admit that, when compared with applicants from poor families, college graduates from richer families with some social relations are more easily recruited by big companies, state-owned enterprises and institutions. Otherwise, students from poor families will have to spend even more money in getting employed.

For instance, Li Fengfeng, a graduate student from Zhengzhou University, spent his family's annual income in searching for a job in 2009.

But interestingly, some 90 percent of college graduates surveyed emphasized that they consider personal ability to be the most important factor when it comes to finding a job. Zhang Yinan, an impoverished college graduate from Zhejiang University, told China Youth Daily that she is only poor economically, not in personal ability. She says she is confident to find her a sound job.

Also according to the report, some local governments have launched financial assistance programs to aid college students from poor families. The Dalian government of northeast China's Liaoning Province, for instance, has established assistance funds to help financially strapped students by providing over three million yuan a year.

(CRI September 3, 2009)