A total of 88 graduates from the prestigious Peking University have applied for grassroots jobs in Beijing's rural areas, the Beijing News reported on Friday (Mar 3).

The applicants include 58 bachelors, 26 postgraduates and 4 doctors, Fang Wei, an official with the university's employment service center, was cited as saying.

If they can successfully pass first round of assessment, several interviews, and physical checkups, they will serve as assistants to village heads and assistant secretaries of village committees of the Chinese Communist Party in the capital's seven outlying districts and two counties.

After serving two years, these village officials will be given priority and after three years of excellent work, will not have to take tests if they wish to progress to graduate school of Peking University, said Fang.

They will also be given priority if they wish to become public servants at the central government departments.

According to the municipal personnel bureau, 3,000 college graduates will take up grassroots jobs in each of the coming two years to work in 3,978 villages in districts of Mentougou, Tongzhou, Shunyi, Changping, Daxing, Huairou and Pinggu and Yanqing and Miyun counties.

The newspaper said that by 2008, the number of such village officials in Tongzhou will reach nearly 1,000, two for every village.

China's central government issued a circular last July to encourage college graduates to seek jobs at the grassroots level to ease the employment pressure in big cities and satisfy the need for professionals in rural areas.

The soaring number of college graduates in recent years has made it increasingly difficult to find jobs.

Nationwide, 3.4 million students graduated from universities in the summer of 2005, 600,000 more than the 2004 figure, and almost three times higher than the 1.15 million in 2001, according to figures provided by the Ministry of Education.

Editor: Wing