A job seeker reads job information during a job fair at Anhui Jianzhu University in Hefei, East China's Anhui Province, April 19, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhang Duan)

China will recruit 32,000 university graduates in 2020 for community-level jobs in education, agriculture, health care, and poverty relief, up 5,000 from 2019, as part of the country's efforts to ease the employment pressure of 8.74 million university graduates this year.

University graduates indeed face tremendous pressure, as enterprises may reduce recruitment due to the economic impact of COVID-19 outbreak, Zhou Tianyong, a professor from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday, adding that the risk of being laid off is high. 

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launched a spree of online job fairs on June 1 that will continue till June 7, covering Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, and Jilin, the ministry said Tuesday.

In early May, China launched 10 initiatives to alleviate the anxiety of university graduates, including increasing university degree programs, expanding community-level jobs, increasing military enlistment, and expanding state-owned enterprise recruitment.

Besides, in order to attract more talents and ease employment pressure, local governments are busy taking innovative measures. Zhou said online job fairs reduce the cost of job hunting for graduates, and the local governments' move will help ease the employment pressure. However, Zhou added that it's essential to promote economic growth and resume businesses, which will help create more job opportunities. 

Shanghai education authority said Tuesday that the city is encouraging social organizations to create more job opportunities for university graduates and welcomes them to start social entrepreneurship with a subsidiary of 8,000 yuan ($1,126) under certain conditions. 

The municipal government has established an information platform to aid firms and graduates meet their needs through high-tech media, as some emerging industries such as livestreaming, online education, etc are in need of more talents.

Along with Shanghai, some smaller cities are also following suit. "We have launched several innovative measures such as online recruitment to attract talents around the nation as the epidemic indeed brought some challenges in recruitment of talents," a staff member from Shaoxing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times Tuesday.

Party chiefs from six counties and districts of Shaoxing also sent invitations to talents all over the world through the short-video platform Douyin.

According to the Shaoxing bureau, so far, the city has launched nearly 200 online job fairs and received 45,000 resumes. 

In addition, Jiangxi Province in East China increased startup loans to 300,000 yuan from the previous 200,000 yuan to support graduate entrepreneurship, and provided a subsidy of 1,000 yuan each for Hubei and economically deprived students.

Along with online job fairs, some onsite recruitment fairs also kicked off. A total of 86 firms offered 2,394 jobs in Wuhan, the worst-affected city by the epidemic, with 831 university graduates securing employment offers, according to media reports.

Shi Hua, one of 8.74 million university graduates this year, who graduated from East China Normal University majoring in communications engineering, was hired by Chinese tech giant Huawei. Shi told the Global Times that some of his classmates are unable to retain summer employment due to the economic impacts of COVID-19.

But Shi is still optimistic about the market related to his major. "With more investment by major companies, along with supportive policies of the country, this industry will continue to recruit more talents."