China is stepping up efforts to lower its unemployment rate with an aim to keep the registered urban jobless rate below 5 percent in the next five years, with additional 45 million people being employed, Minister of Labor and Social Security Tian Chengping said.

However, the unemployment rate among people who have receive higher education has been rising.

In Nanjing, the capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, the total registered unemployment rate has risen to 4.03 percent, down 0.15 percentage point year-on-year. Among those unemployed, 8.049 percent or 12 percent received three to four years of college education, according to Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security.

Of the 8.049 percent unemployed, some majored in law, finance, marketing and other popular specialities, the municipal government confirmed.

In the of Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province, about 2,870 college graduates could not find jobs in 2000, but in 2001, the number has rose to 3,157, or 12.34 percent of the total, the sources with Shenzhen municipal government said.

Compared with the well-educated jobless, skilled workers or technicians can easily to find jobs, sources said.

The reemployment rate is only 20 percent for those with college and university diplomas but as high as 75 percent for other jobless groups, sources with the Shenzhen city government said.

Experts say that college students are fastidious but incompetent.

Many of them have acknowledged that college diploma does not guarantee stable jobs, suggesting college graduates make some adaptations when choosing jobs.

"College graduates usually demand better salaries and working environments," said Yu Huihong, director of Shenzhen Municipal Labor Bureau. "But most lack practical knowledge or skills and sometimes what they learn at school cannot be used at their job posts."

With the development of a market economy, employers have gradually attached importance to skills and competence instead of diplomas, he noted.

Textbooks for college and university students complied during 1970's have not been updated.

Yu urged education departments to adapt textbooks and teaching methods to China's evolving market economy.

China's expansion of university enrollment does not mean the government has also enlarged its job market, insiders said, underscoring that the unemployment rate of well-educated people is bound to increase.

Source: Xinhua