China's Ministry of Personnel on Saturday began its annual national employment service for millions of university graduates, with more than 480,000 positions up for grabs online and at job fairs around the country.

A total of 121 local human resources departments and job service websites and 26,000 employment units will take part in 126 job fairs across the country including those held over the Internet.

Employment experts will be invited to university campuses and job fairs to offer job seeking tips to students due to graduate next July.

According to the ministry, the most sought-after positions are in marketing, administration, computer science, machinery, architecture, finance, chemistry, human resources, foreign languages and medicine.

Statistics show that 4.13 million students graduated from higher education institutions this year, 750,000 more than last year.

About 1.24 million Chinese college students will graduate next year without immediate job offers.

The ministry encourages university graduates to work in the rural areas in West China region with favorable policies such as guaranteed salaries and medical care, and subsidies for those who go to undeveloped and remote rural areas,

Statistics show China is facing a severe employment crisis with 34.5 million people expected to come on to the labor market from 2006 to 2010.

About 25 million new job-seekers would enter the market this year, of whom 11 million might find jobs in the urban areas, leaving 14 million unemployed.

The unemployed in China are mainly composed by laid-off workers, college graduates, redundant rural laborers and those returned from overseas study, or "haigui" which means a "sea turtle" -- a Chinese pun for overseas returnees.

A random sample survey of 1,500 Chinese returned from recent overseas study shows that more than 35 percent of them have employment problems, said Lin Zeyan, researcher with the human resources study training center of the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Lin said their job difficulties are mainly resulted from their high expectations of salaries as they want their huge overseas educational investment pay off by finding a "lucrative" job.

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2006)