चीन में नौकरियों में भारी गिरावट

Two years ago the multinationals were competing to hire the brightest talent from China's universities but since the financial crisis jobs in multinational firms whose parent companies have run into trouble overseas, like CitiGroup or Motorola, no longer look so secure.

This year there was a record number of applications for the civil service, more than three quarters of a million people applied for 13,500 places. The surveys of the multinationals reported in the state media suggest that those applicants were wise to seek safer alternatives.

Almost 7 out of 10 of the firms polled made clear they planned to recruit fewer staff in the year ahead. That will make life even harder for this year's graduates. There are fewer jobs available than before and they'll be competing with other unemployed graduates from previous years and with newly laid off workers who already have experience. The graduate employment market has always been tough in China but this year it is looking like it will be tougher than ever.

Chris Hogg, BBC News, Shanghai