This year, the job market in China will see unprecedented competition among job seekers, triggered by the largest ever number of college graduates and big-step reform in state-owned enterprises (SOE).

Statistics from the Ministry of Education shows that this year a record number of 5.59 million people will graduate from Chinese universities, before joining the fight for jobs with over 700,000 job seekers who graduated last year and are still unemployed, the website of People's Daily reports.

Meanwhile, the year 2008 is the last year of the 4-year SOE bankruptcy program, said Yin Weimin, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security.

In the program, over 2,000 SOEs running deficits will declare bankruptcy and lay off large numbers of workers.

In the first half of 2008, 6.4 million people in China found jobs, said Yin, completing 64 percent of the target for the whole year.

For the rest of the year the government will take measures to create more jobs, provide better services for those willing to start their own business and offer more public trainings of professional skills.

(CRIENGLISH.com July 11, 2008)