A record number of job seekers visited the Shanghai Job Placement Center or its Website during the first quarter of this year, where a record number of employers had set up help wanted ads, according to a recent government employment report.

According to the report, which was released by the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau yesterday, more than 335,000 people applied for jobs offered through the center during the first three months of this year. That represents a 10.5 percent increase from the same period last year.

The number of employers who used the center to recruit workers rose 13.3 percent from last year to 6,000. Those companies listed 328,000 job vacancies during the first quarter.

The report said there was 0.98 vacancies for every job seeker who visited the center by the end of March, about the same ratio as reported during the first quarter of last year.

The center's Website (www.12333.gov.cn) was busy during the first three months of the year, with traffic increasing 20 percent from the same period last year.

The number of people visiting the center in person dropped 4 percent during the period.

Zhang dezhi, the center's director, attributed the rising number of job seekers using the Internet service to the number of upcoming university graduates looking for jobs.

"As university graduates are always veteran Internet users compared with other job-hunting groups, their strong employment intention will undoubtedly give rise to the booming online job market," Zhang said.

Meanwhile, positions in government departments or agencies were the most popular among local job applicants with at least a college degree owing to the high social status and preferential welfare policies such positions offer, center officials said.

The report indicated that more than 32 percent of local university graduates this year said their first choice was to work for government.

That is up from just 24 percent in 2003 and 27 percent last year, according to the center.

(CRI.com April 16, 2005)