Graduate salaries see slight bump to 2,443 yuan

The average starting salary for graduates this year is 2,443 yuan ($395) in 68 cities, an increase of 324 yuan year-on-year but still 6.25 percent lower than expected salaries, according to a survey issued by Peking University on July 30.

The survey, jointly conducted by Peking University and commercial website ganji.com from April 1 to June 30, collected 355,158 on-line questionnaires from graduates in 68 major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the chinanews.com reported.

The gap between expected and actual salaries has narrowed this year to 163 yuan from 391 yuan.

With starting salaries lower than expected, more than 30 percent of the graduates relied on their parents, with 5.9 percent of those reliant on their parents receiving more than 1,000 yuan every month from their family.

More than 80 percent of those who relied on their parents for support had not yet found a job, but their average spending was 1,553 yuan per month, which is 36 percent higher than the average spending by the average of the polled graduates.

Nearly 40 percent of those polled lived paycheck to paycheck, spending all their money by the end of the month. The average salary of male graduates is 2,630 yuan, which is 389 yuan higher than that of female graduates. Many enterprises are more willing to hire men under the same conditions, the report said.

This year is reportedly the hardest for new job-hunters in a decade, with only 14.3 percent of the 7 million students who graduated this summer finding work by the end of June, said the report.

The survey showed that majoring in hospitality management, although it had a low rate of employment, ranked top of starting salaries at 2,900 yuan.

Logistical-related major had a high employment rate and high salaries, with an average starting point of 2,875 yuan.

Majors of vehicle maintenance and repair, tourism management and environmental science-related ranked last, at an average starting salary of around 2,000 yuan.