The 2015 Jiangsu Universities Graduates Cross-region Recruitment Fair was held in Nantong on May 27.

Some 250 companies participated in the event and offered more than 6,000 jobs in areas including biology, chemistry, software development, electronics, textiles, clothing, construction and property development, said Wu Hao, director of the graduate service department of Nantong Talent Service Center.

Apart from many local companies, employers from neighboring cities including Shanghai, Taizhou and Huai’an also participated in the event.

“Companies are passionate about this recruitment fair. More than 200 companies from Nantong joined the fair,” Wu said.

“The public service platform matches companies and graduates by integrating all the resources and strengthening communications between cities,” Wu said.

  Some 56,000 college and university graduates in Nantong will enter the job market this year. [Xu Congjun for China Daily]  

The fair had a special section for Taizhou companies to accommodate the high number of firms from the city participating in the event. “We have many employees from Nantong who have a good working attitude and skills, so we are keen on recruiting more staff from Nantong,” said Song Wentao, an office director at Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group Production Center Engineering Department.

“There are also many Taizhou students studying in Nantong. The fair is a good platform to match our company with students,” Song said. He added that the company offered graduates monthly salaries of between 2,000 yuan ($323) and 3,500 yuan as well as free accommodation.

Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group in Taizhou offered jobs in drug production, equipment maintenance, wastewater treatment and drug visual inspection.

Despite employers’ enthusiasm in seeking suitable candidates, many young job hunters are not interested in all job offers, especially vacancies for frontline workers.

The imbalance in supply and demand still exists, even though it is not as serious as before.

Some graduates said they would prefer jobs that make better use of what they studied.

“There are many vacancies in logistics management but I haven’t found my favorite position,” said a graduate surnamed Zhang from Jiangsu Vocational College of Business, whose major was logistics.“I want to find a job related to logistics management and leverage what I have learned.”

“I will only consider positions with at least 2,000 yuan in monthly income,” Zhang added.

“Although we offered many positions, we haven’t received many resumes,” said Qi Lingxue, a senior manager for e-commerce platform www.99vk.com.

The e-commerce company specializes in the healthcare service sector and needs 90 graduates with majors in e-commerce, international trade, logistics management and applied electronics technologies. Qi said that far less applicants showed an interest than expected.

Although there are fewer positions in the manufacturing industry than before, computing and e-commerce companies showed there was a strong demand for graduates during the event.

Industry insiders said the increasing demand was closely tied with Nantong’s economic transformation and universities efforts in improving course design.

“We design courses based on market demand so our students have no difficulty in finding jobs,” said Feng Zhiming, principal at JVCB.

JVCB’s graduates in contemporary logistics, e-commerce, graphic design and customs declaration were welcomed into the job market, Feng said.

“Graduates of pure language studies face difficulties getting jobs so in our school we combine foreign language majors with business to enhance graduates’ competitiveness,” he said.

Some 56,000 college and university graduates in Nantong will enter the job market in 2015.

“Companies can provide sufficient positions for the job market. We hope job seekers are proactive so they can start a new chapter in their lives,” said Wu from the graduate service department of Nantong Talent Service Center.

Contact the writers through dingcongrong@chinadaily.com.cn