Surveys show university graduates today consider big State-owned and top international companies with high job security or reputation as their primary choice

This year, a record-breaking 7.95 million students will graduate from universities across China, about 300,000 more than last year. Many have dubbed 2017 as the most difficult year for new graduates to find a job.

But despite the massive talent pool, small and medium-sized enterprises, especially start-ups, are finding it difficult to hire new graduates.

One of the main employment obstacles cited by employers is salary expectations.

"I had an interview with a new graduate who, despite having no job experience and little knowledge of code writing, expected a monthly salary of at least 13,000 yuan ($1,913). He also said that he only wanted to work in Shanghai," said Ni Hualiang, founder of OYMotion Technologies, a start-up in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai.

The 2016 Eco-Index of Entrepreneurship and Innovations in Shanghai, released by the Office of Research Management of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in December, revealed that nearly 60 percent of start-up companies said their biggest expenditure and bottleneck lie in human resource.

For small companies with modest budgets, employee wages inevitably present an obstacle to further development. Ni added the bigger spending powers of large corporations work against small companies.

"Even though this person is inexperienced, there is a possibility he could actually find a job in a big company that is able to pay him that much. It is difficult for us start-ups to compete against the big companies for talents," said Ni.

"It is really difficulty to find the right staff for small companies like us, many job seekers see start-ups as their last option," he added.

Another employment obstacle is the perception of companies. According to a report released by a major recruitment platform in China, State-owned companies and those listed in the world's top rankings are still the most popular among graduates as they are associated with job security and sophisticated work environments.