MORE than 40 percent of China's college graduates believe the most effective way to obtain a job is through social contacts, according to a survey released Sunday, which was jointly conducted by the Communist Youth League of China and Beijing University.

The survey, covering 6,000 college graduates in 100 institutions of higher learning, reveals that in large cities the proportion of people who feel they need good contacts to get a job was more than 50 percent.

Deputy professor Wang Liping with the Research Institute on Public Policies of Beijing University said that while using one's contacts is contrary to the notion of a meritocracy, they are inevitably quite important when competition intensifies.

The survey said that about 27.25 percent of the graduates had not found a job by the end of May. More then 15 percent of the graduates said they would continue their education or have postponed job hunting.

Nationally just under 50 percent of the graduates have received job offers. In Beijing, the number of graduates with jobs is over 60 percent.

Graduates who majored in agriculture were "unexpectedly popular" in the job market as more than 78 percent of them have secured jobs, said the survey.

Business management was the second most popular major with an employment rate of 58.02 percent. Graduates from engineering, law, education and medicine were the next most successful job seekers.

With fierce competition and a tight supply of jobs, the salary expectations of this year's graduating classes were low. More than 4.13 million students graduated with bachelor degrees this year, an increase of 22 percent, said the survey.

More than 66 percent of the respondents expect their monthly salaries to be between 1,000 yuan (US$125) and 2,000 yuan. While some 67 percent of the respondents said "opportunities for personal development" were more important than salary. Only 1.58 percent said they would work for "no payment during probation."

According to the survey, more than 52 percent of the student respondents viewed "the lack of social experience" as the biggest obstacle in their job hunting.

Editor: Wing