College students who are about to graduate are showing increasing preference for stable jobs, mostly in state-owned companies, reports China Daily citing research from Zhaopin. It found that most students who were surveyed have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the current economic landscape, and favour job stability in top private and State-owned companies instead of flexible jobs that may have uncertainty. Nearly 47 percent of the respondents surveyed between March and April, considered the ‘golden period’ for college students to seek jobs before graduation, want to be employed in state-owned companies, which is a year-on-year increase of 2.3%.

Large and medium-sized companies remain top choices, while about 26% of the respondents are willing to work in small and micro-sized companies. Undergraduates form the bulk of job seekers, but postgraduates and those with doctoral degrees are preferred by recruiters, the data shows. As of mid-April, about 47.5% of the undergraduates Zhaopin surveyed had received job offers. In contrast, about 54.4% of vocational graduates and 56.7% of graduates with master's or doctoral degrees had job offers by mid-April.