However, on one late-June morning, many of the booths were unattended and the recruiting staff dozed at their desks.

Cui Jinjin, a human resources manager at a real estate company in Beijing, signed just four graduates at a fair held on June 21.

"Many new graduates consulted us, but I think most of them were asking just for fun. The salary we offer new graduates is no lower than for office workers, but they feel that earning a living by selling houses is not commensurate with their status as college graduates," Cui said.

Qin Hao, deputy general manager of Jiangsu Allyrise Pharmaceutical Co, echoed that viewpoint, saying the shortage of labor has become a long-term headache.

"I like hiring new graduates because we can train them to become the staff we want them to be. But these 'kids' demand too much in terms of salaries, social healthcare and future promotion instead of expressing a willingness to learn and demonstrate their passion for the company," he said.

Jiangsu Allyrise Pharmaceutical had interviewed more than 300 applicants by the end of May, and half of them were new graduates. However, the graduate applicants only accounted for a small proportion of the 63 workers eventually recruited.

"We prefer people with slightly lower educational backgrounds. They are willing to work hard and make fewer demands on their employers," Qin said.

Yang Weiguo, vice-director of the China Institute for Employment Research, attributed the problem to a failure in the higher education system, saying China's economic structure is at a comparatively lower level and is highly labor intensive. The pace of structural updating doesn't match that of economic growth.

"Although we have made great achievements in aerospace and supercomputers, they do not weigh much in the economic structure. It simply means that companies don't need so many highly qualified workers. Why do factories bother to recruit college students to do a job that can be mastered in just a few days?" he said.