The strict COVID-19 prevention and control measures taken by Shanghai in recent months have created certain obstacles for employing college graduates this year. While enterprises and public institutions cannot launch large-scale offline recruitment drives for the time being, colleges and universities, too, have reduced the scope of holding campus recruitment drives or internship for graduates.

To ease the pressure on college graduates, multiple departments in Shanghai recently issued a joint notice, requiring all districts, departments and colleges to take available measures to offset the negative impact of the epidemic on employment.

The circular also proposed the building of a "greater online and offline employment market" for college graduates. It asked all relevant authorities to strengthen coordination, integrate recruitment platforms in Shanghai and organize a series of comprehensive online and offline job fairs.

The formation of such a greater employment market not only means that the "plate of employment" will become bigger, but also indicates that online and offline recruitment channels will be opened and interconnected, connecting jobs with job-seekers and more accurately dovetailing enterprises' job supply with young people's job demands.

In fact, Shanghai is actively mobilizing all resources it can to ensure that college graduates find jobs. The Shanghai government has tried to create various government posts, cut taxes and fees for enterprises, and implemented preferential social security policies for and offered subsidies to enterprises to encourage them to hire fresh graduates.

Universities and colleges have also tried their best to introduce employment opportunities. Fudan University has opened an online signing service for students and held a special recruitment fair for alumni enterprises, covering all its undergraduate and graduate majors.

The joint notice also mentions providing affordable rental housing for a while to graduates who work in Shanghai but have no housing of their own. Also, colleges and universities will appropriately extend the time of graduates' on-campus status to reduce their living burden and pressure.

At this special time, Shanghai should try all means to provide employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to its graduates.