This year's university graduates are learning some hard lessons as the job hunters. Even the luckier ones are looking at starting salaries a quarter to nearly one-third lower than those of last year's graduates.

The latest issue of China Newsweek reports that some desperate new grads are even sending out resumes with offers to accept "zero-salary jobs" in hopes of catching the eye of prospective employers.

Liu Fengchuan will soon graduate from Sichuan Normal University in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. His resume says that he will work for no pay.

The ploy worked, to an extent: Liu got a longer interview with his prospective employer than other candidates. But in the end he was turned down because of his lack of experience in marketing. He had no idea how to do the job he was pursuing.

Some other members of the class of '04 in Chongqing and Sichuan issued a call via the Internet to establish a salary alliance. They proposed that all graduates "just say no" to any offer with a starting salary lower than 2,500 yuan (US$302) a month.

The likelihood of a large group of young and desperate jobseekers sticking to such a pact seems slim, particularly in light of the fact that starting salaries for nine out of ten Chinese university graduates fall short of the proposed benchmark. A survey by a Beijing University research team in 2003 showed that the average monthly salary for a new graduate was only 1,551 yuan (US$187)

Even white-collar workers who are currently employed saw salaries drop 14.7 percent last year, especially those in the IT industry, according to a survey by ChinaHR.com. In 2003, most university graduates hoped to get a monthly salary between 2,000 and 3,000 yuan. However, this year's crop have lowered their expectations to the 1,000-2,000 yuan range.

According to the Ministry of Education, 2.8 million new college graduates will hit the job market in the summer of 2004, an increase of 680,000 over the same time last year. By 2005, the number is expected to reach 3.4 million.

While the Ministry of Education says that the employment rate of new university grads will exceed 70 percent by this September, this means that well over 800,000 will join the ranks of the unemployed after graduation.

"Employers prefer recruiting experienced staff members, thinking that it is not so easy for university graduates to adjust themselves to their work in one or two years," said Ren Zhanzhong, director of the Beijing Employment Instruction Center for University Graduates. "Fewer employers are willing to pay to train them."

Ren points out that universities must readjust their course offerings and curricula to meet the needs of the market. Students need more hands-on experience and practical training. "Otherwise," says Ren, "their students will not find a decent job after graduation."

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2004)