Spokesman Wang Xuming said next year's number of university graduates will represent a rise of 820,000 over this year.

"Given the already grave employment situation in the countrythe employment pressure on university graduates will be obvious," he told a regular press conference.

Based on the average employment rate of 70 per cent for university graduates upon graduation, more than 1.49 million of them may become jobless next year.

To address the problem, the ministry has asked universities to give top priority to better employment services for graduates in 2007, the spokesman said.

"The employment rate will be one of the crucial criteria to evaluate a university, and any cheating in the figure will be severely punished," he said.

He added that the employment rate will be considered in next year's recruiting plan, which is being drafted by the ministry.

But he also noted that the present 5-10 per cent growth in university enrolment is a "normal rate" for the development of the educational industry.

Liu Yuebo, director of the Employment Service Office of Nankai University, a key national university in Tianjin, said the increasingly competitive job market has prompted his university to make greater efforts to help its students find jobs in recent years.

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