Colleges in Shanghai will see about 246,000 graduates in 2025, an increase of roughly 1,000 from this year, the Shanghai Education Commission announced over the weekend at the opening ceremony of a job fair.

Those numbers include 87,000 postgraduates, 111,000 undergraduates, and 48,000 vocational students.

The Autumn Campus Job Fair for 2025 University Graduates was held at Shanghai University, with about 30,000 job vacancies offered by over 1,200 employers, attracting more than 28,000 graduating students.

The competitive job market was evident as students arrived well-prepared. Huang, a master's student from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, brought 200 resumes.

"My counselor advised me to bring plenty, so I printed extras," he said.

After initial setbacks with online applications, Huang adjusted his expectations and broadened his job search to include suburban districts, and adjusted his salary expectations.

Some students started their job hunting early and already had some offers, but continued to explore more opportunities.

Coco Hong, a student from Donghua University, tailored her resume for different companies, focusing on the medical device industry.

"I had interviews and internships during the summer vacation and got three offers already," she said. "But it's the beginning of job hunting for us and it's too early to make a final decision. So I'm here to see if there are better options."

Employers at this job fair are mainly from the three pillar industries – integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence – and six key sectors, namely electronic information, life and health, automobiles, high-end equipment, advanced materials, and fashion and consumption.

These included 50 of the Fortune 500 Companies and 200 of China's top 500 enterprises.

The potential employers received more than 24,000 resumes and offered 7,000 invitations for further interviews.