MORE than 100,000 college students from across the country flocked to the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center for a job fair Saturday.

More than 400 enterprises and institutions had about 20,000 vacancies on offer at the fair, which was specially designed for college students who are to graudate next year.

The huge number, around 10,000 more than the total number recorded at a two-day job fair last year, forced the organizer to occasionally restrict student flow starting from 10 a.m. Saturday, according to Chinese-language newspaper reports.

According to the organizer, the Shenzhen Municipal Personnel Bureau, the upsurge in the number of visitors this year was because the job offers were more attractive than last year and 7,000 more than the previous year.

A random survey showed 72 percent of visitors were college students who expect to graduate with a bachelor’s degree, 13 percent were students who are to graduate from college and professional schools and 12 percent were students who are to be awarded a master’s degree.

The booths of China Construction Bank were crowded with students. “We queued for half an hour and were each given three minutes for an interview,” Zhang, a student from Central South University, was quoted by the Daily Sunshine as saying.

“It is getting harder and harder to land a job because we have too many rivals,” said a student surnamed Chen from South China Agricultural University. The student, majoring in bio-engineering, said she would be satisfied if she could find a job with a salary of 1,500 yuan a month.

Most enterprises, around 80 percent in total, were satisfied.

“We have selected the candidates we need. The students have good communication and teamwork skills and are willing to work in our company’s outlets in other cities,” said Zhang, an HR manager of an electronics company.

Meanwhile, almost 1,000 angry students gathered at the Shenzhen Talent Market in Luohu District on Saturday, demanding refunds for their tickets after they found that the Web site of the talent market had mistakenly posted the wrong venue for the fair. Some had come from outside Guangdong Province and some had even come from Beijing and Tianjin. The talent market arranged for the students to be taken to the convention and exhibition center by 1 p.m. Saturday.

(Han Ximin)