"The shrinking job market is the result of the sluggish world economy and tempered domestic growth," said Yang Lin, director of the career guidance center of Beijing Technology and Business University.

New posts in many large state-owned enterprises have declined dramatically this year after economic reform or restructuring was performed in order to achieve efficiency, Yang added.

Out of 178,000 college graduates in Shanghai, 44.5 percent had signed up for employment as of May 10, while the figure for Beijing was only 33.6 percent at the beginning of May, according to government figures.

The grave employment situation has concerned China's leadership. Chinese President Xi Jinping talked with college graduate representatives during his visit to a vocational training center in Tianjin in May, urging efforts to help graduates find employment.

China's central government outlined measures to help college graduates in their job search, including the implementation of existing policies favorable to graduates' employment, providing training subsidies, petty loans and tax breaks for self-employment.

Despite of the great pressure in the job market, many small- and medium-sized businesses are facing difficulties in finding employees due to a preference to seek work in the civil service, public institutions or state-run companies among young job seekers.

"We're keen to hire college students with an education background in marketing, advertising or human resources, but it's really difficult to attract them," said Wang Zhong, manager of a small private company based in eastern China's Shandong Province.