Most Chinese graduates will not find jobs

Sixty percent of Chinese college leavers looking for work in the final half of 2006 will be unable to find a job, a government report has revealed.
China is expected to face serious employment difficulties during this period, according to a report published by the National Development and Reform Commission, the official Xinhua news agency said Sunday.

The number of graduates will increase by 22 percent over the previous year to reach 4.13 million while the job market can only soak up 1.66 million new graduates, down 22 percent on the previous year, the report said.
"It is hard to create new jobs in large numbers due to surplus production capacity, more trade frictions and the revaluation of the yuan. As a result, it will be less easy to tackle employment pressure," Zhang Xiaojian, vice minister of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, was quoted as saying.

According to the report, due to stable economic growth, the first quarter saw a healthy employment situation with a registered urban unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, 2.52 million newly-added urban laborers and 1.03 million laid-off workers reemployed.
China's unemployment rate does not take into consideration people living in the countryside who are idle laborers or surplus labor seeking employment.
The level of surplus labor this year would reach 14 million, around one million more than last year, the report said.
The Commission said in March it was expecting 25 million new people to seek jobs in the cities this year but only 11 million urban jobs to be created.