新闻英语视听说(Unit 2) 听力文本与练习答案

Job Hunting

1

Task One: Graduates Feel Market Squeeze

According to the job fairs we’ve just seen and also recent surveys show the hiring prospects

are bleak for this year’s college graduates. In China’s financial hub—Shanghai, and the country’s export base—Guangdong province, most students are still waiting for job offers. As Wang Xiqing reports.

Seven out of ten here still haven’t found a job, and most of them are desperate.

On average, these students in Shanghai have sent out thirty to fifty applications each. And in extreme cases, some have posted copies of their resumes six hundred times.

Surveys show students’ minimum salary expectations are between two to three thousand yuan a month. Foreign or multi-national companies top the list in applications, while small private companies are the least favored, because of fears they could go bust the next day.

Many students say they’re willing to work as interns in the hope that excellent performance during their probation period（实习期，试用期）might win them a contract. However, only a very small proportion of companies are actually willing to take on interns. And even if they do, that often means low-value positions like answering phone calls at reception.

The situation is even worse in Guangdong, where only 8.4% of final year students have signed labor contracts.

Over 330,000 local college students will graduate in July, 14% more than last year. And adding the number of graduating students from other provinces coming to Guangdong in search

for jobs, the army of young job seekers in the province will top 500,000 this year.

To rub salt into the wound the demand for graduates has dipped by 20%, as companies are trying to limit their labor costs in the wake of the economic slowdown.

The unfortunate figures mean that all their efforts to hunt down a job could prove to be fruitless.

(A graduate student in Guangdong)

“Whether you’re from an urban or rural area, if you’re unemployed, then you should expect some kind of minimum subsidy from the government. But we graduates are not officially considered to be unemployed. We’re called people awaiting jobs. I’m very disturbed by this definition.”

The employment situation was a top concern during the government’s political sessions earlier this month. Officials acknowledged that hiring prospects in China are grave, and a slew of measures have been announced in the hope of relieving the situation.

A total of 7.1 million college graduates will chase jobs this year, including 1 million who failed to secure employment last year.