Returned overseas grads face the most difficult year for job hunting

A report shows that over 400 thousand overseas graduates will be coming back to China to launch their careers this year, making for a tough year of job hunting.

A record high number of new college graduates are pouring into the job market, but the number of job positions has dropped by 15 percent compared to last year.

The numbers are not just figures, but real stories of students desperately searching for jobs.

Miss Jiang just got her master's degree in marketing in France and returned home a few months ago. She found the reality for job-seekers is harsher than she thought.

"It is more difficult than I expected to find a job. I've applied for about 20 different positions, but only a few of them replied. I'd like to work in any company, or positions connected to marketing, French translation, administrative or business assistance."

A recent report released by EIC Group, one of China's overseas education agencies, shows China's returned overseas students will exceed 400 thousand, and domestic graduates have reached a record high of 7.2 million.

Degrees from overseas universities used to be a magic key for graduates to find a well-paid job, but the situation for overseas students has become extremely grim because of a lack of planning for future work.

Gu Jun, a senior manager of EIC group, has this advice for fresh graduates.

"Graduate students should have made an early plan for their future careers. It will be very helpful for their overseas study and work, as well as their job-hunting after graduation."

Another reason for high jobless rates among overseas grads relates to the decisions made by Chinese human resources departments to pass over those candidates.

Liu Yi is in charge of recruitment in a company.

"Their expectations are very different and far beyond the real situations. For example, some people may think the statement analysis or the analysis of the company's profit and loss is the basic job for accounting. In fact, it's not, the most basic thing might be writing a receipt."

As China struggles to transform its economy, GDP growth has been reduced from almost double digits to just around 7 percent. And every one percentage point drop means more than one million jobs wiped out.

But despite all the challenges, these students still choose to stick it out. They believe no matter how hard life is, there will be a silver lining.