Shanghai takes measures to help students graduating this year

Authorities in Shanghai have been working to help students who are graduating this year to secure employment in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ni Minjing, deputy director of the Municipal Education Commission, said on Thursday.

According to Ni, around 193,000 university students in Shanghai are expected to graduate this year, an increase of 3,000 from last year.

Ni noted that the class of 2020 has entered a challenging job market where the number of job seekers is surging while demand is declining.

As such, the city has taken measures to help college graduates find jobs.

In February, the Municipal Education Commission and the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau jointly issued a notice calling on the human resource and social security bureaus of all districts to carry out online recruitment.

In March, Shanghai provided several suggestions regarding the opening up of employment channels, increasing employment opportunities and introducing incentive policies.

According to Ni, over 10 online job fairs have been held for college graduates since March, providing more than 230,000 jobs at 23,000 companies.

The government has also stimulated employment in the fields of teaching and the arts, offering 5,800 teaching positions at kindergartens and primary and secondary schools, as well as 5,000 jobs for arts and sporting talents.

In addition, 1,000 job positions were provided for graduates by the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.

The city has also mandated that enterprises owned by the central, municipal and district governments offer no less than 50 percent of their job opportunities to Shanghai graduates this year.

Ni said the Shanghai government will focus more on helping graduates in disciplines most affected by the epidemic and those facing employment and family difficulties.

He urged graduates to have confidence in the employment opportunities in the city as well as set realistic expectations when searching for a job. Statistics from an online job fair system shows that the number of jobs provided at several online job fairs exceeded the number of resumes received.

Students should stop waiting and observing, and seize every opportunity to secure a job, he added.

Ni also encouraged grads to apply for frontline positions where they can contribute to community governance, instead of just focusing on management positions.