College students are graduating in their chosen subjects only to find the job market has changed since they picked the so-called "hot courses" that were expected to land them good jobs.

Graduates with different majors have very different experiences in the job market. But degrees in finance, economics and a few other fields often guarantee good jobs.

"I have applied to 15 companies online, and most of them show interest in hiring me," said Wang Ming, a postgraduate of Labor Economics at Southwest University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

He said all the students of economics, finance and accounting at his university had received at least two job offers.

Students of mining and materials science, not previously popular, had seen more employment opportunities than before. The employment rate of graduates from the two courses was 100 percent at Guizhou University in Guizhou Province.

"Many companies would come straight to our school to find employees," said Wang Hua of the university's employment guide center.

But some "hot courses," including law, journalism and computer science, had failed students as there was a surplus of supply in the job market.

To solve this, Guizhou University has decided to adjust its enrollment if the employment rate of a major drops below 70 percent.

"The law school recruited around 600 students in 2004, but we only took about 100 last year, raising the employment rate from 70 percent to 90 percent," said Wang Hua.

Another problem that makes it difficult for graduates to find jobs is the gap between what is taught and the practical requirements of a career.

In 2007, just 60 percent of computer science graduates were employed.

Meanwhile, job vacancies in the IT industry exceeded one million.

IT companies complained about the money they had to spend to train new employees and hoped universities would adjust their courses to better prepare students for work.

About 5.6 million students will graduate this year, 640,000 more than in 2007.

Last year, nearly 1.4 million university graduates, a third of the total, failed to find jobs, authorities said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2008)