BEIJING - Out of China's 6.63 million vocational school graduates, 96.71 percent found jobs last year, a slight increase from 96.56 percent in 2010, figures from the Ministry of Education show.

The results were based on a survey conducted by the ministry last November that covered 109,490 graduates from 146 vocational schools in 10 cities.

According to the survey, processing and manufacture, traffic and transportation, tourism and services, information technology and finance and trade were the five most popular specialties for vocational school graduates when looking for jobs.

Public attitude toward vocational schools, which train students to work in technical fields, has improved in recent years, partially due to surging demand for skilled workers in the manufacturing industry.

In contrast with the job-hunting difficulties that graduates from universities and colleges have faced, skilled workers have had a much easier time finding employment.

Survey results show that 77.26 percent of all the employed graduates work in various enterprises and public institutions, and 13.36 percent started their own businesses.

Also, 75 percent of these newly-employed vocational school graduates started at a monthly salary ranging between 1,000 (156.6 U.S. dollars) to 2,000 yuan, and 19 percent earned more than 2,000 yuan.

With financial support from China's central government, vocational education has progressed rapidly in recent years. In 2009, China had 21 million students at secondary school age undergoing vocational education.