Attendants walk around the Ningbo job fair for the highly educated at Ningbo International Exhibition Center on Sept 20. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The annual Ningbo job fair for highly educated people was held at Ningbo International Exhibition Center on Sept 20, attracting over 14,000 highly educated job seekers to attend, up 12.1 percent from a year earlier.

"The environment and pay here are satisfactory to me, so I'm willing to stay and work here in Ningbo," said a job applicant from Jiangxi province, who obtained a master's degree in sociology from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, a Top 15 university in China.

The fair, held for the 20th consecutive year, was part of the 2018 Ningbo Talents, Science and Technology Week event.

More than 13,000 jobs were available from nearly 900 companies in the city or beyond, covering the fields of cross-border e-commerce, medical care, education and legal services, especially in the city's key industries such as auto manufacturing, information technology, new materials, green petrochemicals and high-end equipment.

"Job applicants in this fair are more educated and qualified than in normal job fairs, most of whom have master's or PhD degrees from top level universities in China," said a person in charge of recruitment at Exciton Technology, a famous local high-tech company, adding that over 50 percent of their satisfactory job applicants are from the fair.

The fair appeals to job applicants for its large scale and abundant jobs, according to a graduate student majoring in machinery manufacturing at Ningbo University, who said that he was impressed that many of the big companies here offered multiple jobs, which gave him a variety of opportunities.

In addition, the local government provided traffic allowances of 200 (nearly $30) to 800 yuan to all the applicants, based on their traveling distances, as a way to attract people to attend the fair.

The fair also witnessed the signing of cooperative agreements between local authorities and four other cities and regions urgently in need of talents, based on which Ningbo will offer assistance to the latter in talent recruitment and nurturing, such as inviting companies in these regions to attend the fair.

Local authorities sign cooperative agreements with four other cities and regions urgently in need of talents at the fair. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]