According to the Universum report, the average expected monthly salary for a university graduate is 6,564 yuan ($1,057), down 2.9 percent from 2013.

Civil service jobs in less demand

Ministry calls for reports on graduate employment

The top five attributes of employers, according to students, are good reference for a future career, a competitive base salary, high future earnings, a clear path for advancement and professional training and development.

Graduates in other countries put more emphasis on an employer's culture and on interpersonal relationships while China's university graduates pay more attention to salary and development opportunities. As China's economic development slows, concerns over shrinking job opportunities have increased among graduating students. They have become more analytical about their salary expectations, Wu Gang, vice-president of Universum's Asia-Pacific region, said.

When talking about the years of work with their employer upon graduation, 58 percent said they expected to work for two to three years. About 25 percent said they expected to work for five years or more.

The top three career goals for students are: work and life balance, to be secure or stable and to be independent, it said.

The report also found that with the arrival of the Internet era, some home-grown Internet companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu have become more popular with graduating students.

A record 7.27 million students will graduate in June from China's universities, almost equal to the population of Switzerland, official government statistics say. That tops last year's record of 6.99 million.

Beyond that, a large number of Chinese students are expected to return from overseas studies, which will intensify competition for jobs this year, officials said.

China's top 10 cities for salaries

Dreams of flying high