Two-thirds of China's major universities have witnessed a surge in graduate recruitment. After a one-year disappearance, leading companies in the finance, real estate, and I/T sectors are appearing on campus again.

Top schools have a better situation. Firms are recruiting earlier than before, and need more potential employees.

It's estimated that there will be more than 6.3 million university graduates in 2010. This number is up by about 20 percent. There are also one-million unemployed Class of 2009 members. Although more companies are beginning to recruit this year, the job situation is not that optimistic. Experts remind students to be fully aware of the situation.

Shi Lei, Party Committee Secretary of Fudan University School of Economics said "Now it's too early to say the economy has fully recovered. If people get sick, it takes some time to recover. The same goes for the economy. It takes some time to gradually pick up."

Analysts point out that the financial meltdown has made competition more fierce among firms, especially in the search for quality personnel. Therefore, many companies have cut employment quotas this year while paying more importance to each applicant's qualifications.

Xu Xiaowu, HR Department of China National Offshore Oil Corp. said "We will recruit almost the same number of graduates as last year, but we need more post-graduates, and higher-quality graduates."

Firms also stress that higher quality graduates do not simply mean people holding higher degrees. The term refers to comprehensively qualified professionals. Thus, many employers are tightening their selection procedures.

Kang Dong, Employment Guidance Department of Tianjin University said "In previous years, graduates only needed to pass one or two written exams before signing agreements with companies. Now they face online applications, written exams, face-to-face interviews, and sometimes a company's higher-level governors will interview them in person."

Surveys show that graduates previously needed a week to sign contracts with firms. That period is now as long as one month. Insiders say stricter procedures are inevitable. They suggest that graduates strengthen their mental preparation.

Editor: Guo Changdong Source: CCTV