GUANGZHOU: It is getting more difficult for university graduates to find a job in South China's Guangdong Province, according to the latest official statistics on the labor market.

About 229,000 new graduates registered with employment agents in Guangdong in the second quarter of this year, which was up nearly 27,100, or 13.4 percent, from the first quarter. That figure was up roughly 134,100, or 141 percent, from the corresponding period of last year.

Guangdong's department of labor and social security released the quarterly figures on labor conditions on Tuesday.

While more students are able to attend university because of a nationwide enrollment expansion scheme, they face "more fierce competition" in the job market, government analysts said in a statement after the release of the figures.

About 88 percent of the 2.35 million jobs offered in the second quarter came with specific educational requirements. Sixty percent of the positions available were for graduates of senior high schools or below, while 27.7 percent were reserved for graduates with at least a college diploma, according to the statistics.

Skilled workers are generally more sought after than university graduates in Guangdong, which has been a manufacturing center since the 1980s.

A senior technician attracted four job offers on average, while a common university graduate would get just 1.37 available offers, the figures showed.

The biggest demand for labor was concentrated in the manufacturing, restaurant and catering and wholesale and retail industries, which offered nearly 72.2 percent of the jobs on offer from April to June.

Workers capable of operating manufacturing and transportation equipment and commercial service employees were the most in demand, accounting for a respective 30 percent and 22.5 percent of the vacancies.

Of the 10 occupations in which supply fell seriously short of demand, electronic component workers, common laborers and workers for cold processing of metal were the top three, followed by dressmakers, insurance agents, waiters or waitresses and cooks.

Secretaries and typists were at the top of the list. The number of job seekers in this category was nearly double the number of openings, according to the statistics. This was followed by management staff, engineering technicians, accountants, drivers and custodians.

(China Daily 08/02/2007 page5)