Job seekers view employment information during a job fair (Xinhua/Li Xin)

As China's job market gradually returns to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic, Shanghai's employment numbers have remained steady, with more than 10.15 million of the city's population employed in May, slightly more than in 2019, according to the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.

The employment situation has been generally stable in the city as the city's current unemployment rate is relatively low with 165,900 citizens currently registered as unemployed, Zhang Lan, Deputy Head of Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, said at a local press conference on Thursday.

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate was 6 percent in April, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS); however, the country also created 3.54 million jobs between January and April, the time when Chinese enterprises were hit the hardest by the pandemic.

As China's most recent 8.74 million university graduates are faced with unprecedented employment pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent global economic downturn, traditional offline recruitment methods will continue to be limited, making job seeking even more difficult, industry observers said.

In Shanghai, to create more opportunities for recent graduates, the municipal  government has encouraged state-owned enterprises to offer no fewer than 50 percent of their new jobs to local university graduates. It is expected that more than 3,000 companies would offer a total of 65,000 jobs by the end of May.

What's more, the city promises to recruit 5,800 kindergarten, primary, and secondary school teachers specifically from local graduates, Ni Minjing, Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, said on Thursday.

For recent graduates who want to complete post graduate study, Shanghai's universities plan to enroll more than 3,000 master's degree candidates, a 15 percent growth year on year, Ni said.

Shanghai's education authorities have suggested that graduates proactively send their resumes to employers, expand their networks, and remain optimistic, rather than sit and wait around.

One cultural industry management graduate from East China's Fujian Province, surnamed Zhou, was contemplating her future after recently receiving an unpaid internship in the media industry, saying that the company will only pay a salary of 3,000 yuan if she decides to become a full-time employee.

"The salary isn't very high, but I don't mind," Zhou told the Global Times on Thursday. "I prefer getting a job first, and building my resume and connections in that way."

Shanghai's main industries¬ - transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, sports and recreation, entertainment, and tourism - all experienced severe difficulty trying to provide the same pre-COVID products and content throughout the pandemic; however, the local government has worked hard to support businesses and employees with a multitude of favorable policies.

For example, small- and medium-sized enterprises were made exempt from social insurance tax payments for five months from February to June, and large-scale firms had their business insurance costs reduced for three months from February and April, Zhang said.

In addition, the local government pledged to return 50 percent of the unemployment insurance paid by companies last year to those employers that retain their pre-COVID staff numbers. The local government has so far returned 2.56 billion yuan ($362.6 million) to the city's 126,900 employers, meaning that more than 4.69 million employees were able to maintain their roles.

The city's government also provided employment subsidies to those enterprises who contributed in the fight against the virus (1,500 yuan for every employee), as well as those who suffered serious impacts as a result of the pandemic (800 yuan for every employee), said Zhang.

Shanghai has also encouraged the city's employers to facilitate online career training by covering up to 95 percent of their training costs, Zhang added.