A record high of 7.27 million new graduates will rush into China’s job market this year. 77 percent of them expected a monthly salary ranging from 4,000 to 6,000 yuan, 2,000 yuan higher than last year, the Beijing Youth Daily reports.

Soaring prices and growing sense of self-awareness led to the higher salary expectation, said a report by China’s large job hunting website ChinaHR.com.

About 36 percent of these new job hunters prefer state-owned enterprises, or SOEs, as their first choice. However, for those who have been working for three years and above, the rate drops to 24 percent.

The report said SOEs are not as attractive as before as the social welfare system improves and newly emerged market expands.

It also shows telecommunication enterprises, including China Mobile, Huawei, Xiaomi and Apple, becomes favorable choices for the new graduates.

The percentage of Chinese college graduates choosing to start their own businesses has reached nearly 19 percent, much higher than the 2.21 percent last year.

And the average monthly salary for self-employed college students who graduated in 2010 is much higher than the average for all college students who graduated that year, according to the 2014 Chinese College Graduates’ Employment Annual Report released by MyCOS, an education consulting and research institute in Beijing.

Source: chinadaily.com.cn