A young woman goes over information received at a training course.  [Photo/China Youth Daily]

A large-scale expansion of college enrollment began in China in the 1998, which saw the number of college graduates increase by more than six times.

It is estimated that more than 500,000 of this year's graduates will be unable to find a job within a year.

"The competition in the job market has become increasingly fierce and most of the tenants at the Xiezhi are second or third-tier college graduates who are unfit for high posts but unwilling to take a lower one," said Wen Shaobo, the Xiezhi's owner.

Wen said he once invited an official from Hangzhou's human resource bureau to give a lecture, but not many tenants wanted to attend. He had to knock on the doors, one by one, to ask them to be present.

As employment pressure mounts, some job seekers even suffer mental problems.

Once there was a tenant known as "Brother Ostrich", because he exhibited symptoms of social phobia. After repeatedly failing to find a position, the man locked himself in his room and surfed the Internet or lay in bed all day.

"The hotel is like some sort of a pressure cooker, in which the bad mood caused by employment simmers within," said Wen.

The employment problems of China's college graduates can be partly blamed on the imbalance between academic education and vocational education, said Liu Yanbin, a human resource expert.

There is an old saying in China, "Nothing is lofty except reading books". This traditional value leads to the overestimation of one man's success in academic education and the neglect of one's ability to solve practical problems.

Statistics show that skilled workers only make up 19 percent of the work force in China, with many employers finding it difficult to recruit a competent skilled worker.

That probably indicates a way out for those still unemployed.