China has issued a slew of measures to boost the employment of new graduates in a tough job market disrupted by a COVID-19 resurgence.

Data from China National Statistics Bureau showed that the jobless rate for young people aged between 16 and 24 hit an all-time high in April at 18.2 percent. At the same time, a record number of 10.76 million college graduates are poised to enter the labor market.

Companies and educational institutions are doing their part to ease the path for new workforce entrants.

Testing and inspection giant SGS has kept its laboratory going non-stop during the latest wave of outbreaks in Shanghai. And especially since June 1, when the city accelerated the resumption of normal production and daily operations, the company has been getting more workers back on the job. 

"We've never been more eager than now for young talents with proper educational background and passion for career progress," said Kim Dai, director of human resources at SGS China.

The company has sent out more than 500 offers to this year's graduates via its recruitment programs, and it's not done yet. It has also been conducting online job promotion events through its official WeChat account and Bilibili. 

The company customized two programs to recruit new college graduates. It does have special requirements for certain technical occupations involving science and engineering knowledge that are open to graduates majoring in areas such as chemical analytics, biopharmaceuticals and automation. 

"Candidates with comprehensive capability, [good] personality and development potential also get a high score in our consideration," Dai said. 

Universities are also putting in much effort by conducting online employment fairs to match graduates with work opportunities. 

"We've launched an exclusive online channel to connect graduates with good firms. Their HR staff conduct online promotions and interviews, where teachers and classmates can recommend graduates during the livestream," said Miao Yundi, director of Student Employment Guidance Center at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics. 

Miao added that employers offer graduates jobs directly in this way.

College graduates in China face unprecedented challenges in securing jobs this year because of the mismatch between the number of graduates and the number of job opportunities available. 

June and July are usually when many new graduates get their degrees and start their careers, but firms in Shanghai have only just started to resume business and recover from the COVID-19 resurgence. 

The government is making every effort to help the graduates and promote the recruitment process. According to a policy directive released on Monday, companies, institutions and individually run businesses in Shanghai that sign a minimum one-year contract with a college graduate between March and the end of the year will receive a subsidy of 2,000 yuan for each recruitment. 

Shen Hao, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Employment Promotion Center, said they had started to promote the new subsidy policy to companies and build the system for it. 

"Qualified companies can submit applications starting from around the end of this month," Shen said.

Shen said that the public recruitment website has been simplified where fresh graduates can log in using their real-name verification by scanning the QR code with Alipay or WeChat to register for a jobs hunt.

"Previously, students would usually have to interview with a company for an internship; we are now directly recommending students to companies for internships," Shen added.

As of the end of May, the Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau had held around 320 online job fairs, resulting in the hiring of some 120,000 graduates.

China's job market is getting tougher as the supply of talent mounts, said Liu Baocheng, dean of the Center for International Business Ethics at the University of International Business and Economics.

The Chinese government has issued measures to boost job placement for fresh graduates. Employers are entitled to subsidies for job creation and a portion of tuition refunds is available for graduates settled in job positions. Graduates can enjoy a preferential tax scheme if they launch their own companies. 

Liu said that 90 percent of the job opportunities are created by the private sector, but employers remain rather cautious because of the uncertain climate. Therefore, a decisive solution lies in the vitalization of business confidence with the purchasing managers index falling into the contraction range over the first half of this year.

Liu also said that China's job market is facing two structural challenges. When labor-intensive industries give way to innovation-driven growth modules, job skills need to step up to meet renewed demand. While big cities in the coastal areas are getting overcrowded with highly educated job seekers, central and western regions yearn for high talent pools. How effectively a package of policy tools can be deployed to motivate a west-bound and rural-bound mobility of fresh graduates needs more candid deliberation, Liu said.