A graduate student attending the job fair in Shanghai's Jiaotong University shouted out in the crowd, "Besides my diploma, my physical strength also counts."

This student and his fellow graduates will face a big challenge as 2003 is the first year that China will see a big increase in graduates after deciding to recruit more college students in 1999. Some 2.12 million graduates, up from 1.45 million in 2002, will be fighting for jobs this year.

College graduates are not alone in landing jobs at such fairs; professionals with work experience also tend to seek new jobs via the fairs.

Zhang Xuezhong, minister of Personnel, said at a recent national conference on job fairs held in Jinan that in 2001, altogether 13,125 job fairs were held around China and nearly 3.69 million people found jobs at them.

He said the allocation of professional personnel by market forces had been recognized by Chinese.

Back in the 1970s, when China resumed its college entrance examination, and the 1980s, college graduates could not choose their jobs but waited for the university or government to allocate them. Meanwhile, employers had no right to choose their employees.

Since China adopted its reform and opening up policy more than two decades ago, the personnel regulation has eased and both employers and employees are allowed to choose each other.

Job fairs and job agencies have blossomed since then. Ministry statistics show that in 2001 alone, various job agency websites received 600 million visits.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2003)