Recruiting in China

The women's federation of Zhengzhou, capital city of central China's Henan Province, has selected 17 new women's agriculture model bases to help female college graduates start their own businesses.

According to the federation, the women can seek internships or find jobs at the 17 bases. The Zhengzhou Women's Federation has also allocated 310,000 yuan (US$ 50,871) to provide technical and business skills training for the graduates and assigned mentors for their entrepreneurships.

A record high of 6.99 million Chinese students are leaving universities in 2013, a 2.8 percent increase year on year, to hunt for jobs at a time when employers are cutting down on recruitment, according to government figures.

The number of jobs for new hires this year has dropped about 15 percent year on year amid slowing economic growth in China, according to a Ministry of Education survey carried out among nearly 500 firms in February 2013.

In the midst of China's toughest job market to date, women university graduates are finding that they are at a disadvantage due to various factors, including gender discrimination. According to several universities in central China's Hunan Province, such as the Hunan Women's University and Hunan Agricultural University, nearly half of their women graduates have not landed jobs as of press time.

A campaign to help women college graduates find employment and get involved in entrepreneurship was jointly launched by the Women's Development Department under the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), the Beijing-based Hua Mulan Foundation and the China Federation of Hua Mulan at the beginning of 2013 and women's federations across the country have been working out new ways to boost employment prospects for women graduates.