China expands employment channels for college graduates amid pandemic

As graduation ceremonies in most universities concluded this month, whether in traditional or virtual forms, China’s 2020 college graduates are set to join a labour market saddled by COVID-19.

The number of college graduates is expected to hit a record 8.74 million this year in China, making the already raw job market even more competitive after the offline spring recruitment season was interrupted by the virus outbreak.

To secure jobs for new graduates, China has vowed to give priority to their steady employment, redoubling efforts to enhance employment services and expanding job opportunities to help them pull through the difficult times.

Moving online

Amid nationwide calls for social distancing, authorities have encouraged companies to move recruitment online while creating platforms to facilitate the process.

The Ministry of Education and multiple recruiting platforms have launched an online recruiting service platform to help graduates, whose job outlook appears grim due to the impact of COVID-19.

Since its launch in March, the platform has offered more than 13 million jobs for college graduates.

Online tools, such as the multifunctional social media platform WeChat, have also proved useful when graduates are trying to land a job.

The WeChat platform, incorporating multiple products including WeChat Official Account, mini-programmes and WeChat Pay, has created a wide range of jobs concerning technology development, product operation, digital content and management control for fresh graduates.

According to a report jointly released by WeChat and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in May, more than half of the staff from 55 per cent of entities on the

WeChat platform are graduates from colleges.

Generally speaking, online hiring has advantages over onsite ones in terms of job vacancies, giving graduates more opportunities, said Liu Xinjun, head of the college student affairs office at the Beijing Municipal Education Commission. Xinhua