Graduates talk with a company's hiring officer while attending a job fair in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on May 20. Some 48 companies offered about 1,300 positions for job seekers. DING GENHOU/FOR CHINA DAILY

The demand for graduates to join small and micro-enterprises fell by 60 percent year-on-year, the report says.

"There are fewer choices, and lower salaries," Yang says, admitting that she had got another offer last year, but she didn't take it as the salary was just too low, but now she regrets it. "Had I known job hunting was going to be so tough this year, I wouldn't have turned the offer down."

Many universities have taken measures to help their students land a job, and many State-owned companies and public institutions have expanded recruitment.

At Beijing International Studies University, every one of the 2,000 graduates of the 2020 Class has a teacher assigned by the university who offers guidance and advice on finding work.

Zhao Shuguang, deputy general manager of the human resources department at China Telecom, was quoted in the media as saying the company will hire 11,000 college graduates, up 10 percent from last year.

Public service programs, especially at the grassroots level, have boosted hiring.

Sectors including agriculture production, primary education and basic medical services have also increased recruitment this year－h(huán)iring 32,000 people, 20 percent higher than last year, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Graduates in Hubei province, the hardest hit by the pandemic, are finding it particularly challenging.

Of the 440,000 graduates in the province, 317,000 are from Wuhan, which emerged from the lockdown in April. For them, lockdown was a "pause" button on life.

Liu Xinyuan, a student of Wuhan University, says the impact of the COVID-19 on them was huge.

"During the lockdown, job hunting could only be done on the internet, including online written tests and interviews, but many of us had limited internet access," Liu says.

"Some students had to apply for jobs that don't match their majors. They had to accept jobs they normally wouldn't choose."