Universities and companies in China have been moving their recruitment procedures and providing recruitment guidance online to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the employment of college graduates.

The period after Lunar New Year is normally high season for job-hunting graduates.

Numerous companies go to campuses to give career talks, conduct writing tests and arrange face-to-face interviews, but on-site recruitment has been largely disrupted this year amid nationwide bans on public gatherings to avoid the spread of the disease.

Yi Yuanxiang, director of the department of student's affairs at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei province, said the university organized a special online job fair that began on March 3 and will run through the 31st, with 587 companies offering more than 41,000 positions to graduates of the university.

Career counselors at the university also have answered students' questions online, and the university has offered tips for improving resumes and conducting job interviewers through its WeChat and TikTok accounts.

On March 18, five universities, including Beijing Jiaotong University and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications launched an online recruitment event to expand job-hunting channels.

The event has attracted 1,171 enterprises and organizations in the fields of transportation, communication, construction and the internet. The employers will offer around 70,000 jobs for graduates.

The Ministry of Education has encouraged graduates to pursue higher education, join the military, find jobs or start businesses in sectors including modern agriculture and public social services.

The ministry launched a 24-hour online campus recruitment service in late February to help graduates find jobs amid the epidemic.

The free service is available on the ministry's campus recruitment portal and five leading job-hunting websites in China, all of which have designated special webpages for the project, it said.

More than 2 million job postings have been published at the recruitment portal, and the ministry had planned to organize more than 20,000 online job fairs this month, it said.

Lin Congyu, human resources senior vice-president of Perfect World, a Beijing-based cultural and creative company, said the company plans to hire more than 100 college graduates during the spring hiring season, mainly in the gaming and online education sectors.

The company's campus recruitment website was launched on March 9. All the recruitment processes including campus career talks, written exams and interviews will be conducted online to limit physical contact, Lin said.

"Our goal is to make sure college graduates can land a job at the company without leaving their homes, and I think online recruitment is more effective than traditional hiring."

Wei Chen, vice-president of human resources at Beijing-based TAL Education Group, said the company aims to enroll more than 20,000 graduates as teachers this year.

The company will conduct online career talks at some of the top universities in China, including Peking University and Tsinghua University, she said.

The talks will also be launched on social media platforms popular with students, Wei said.

As the online education sector witnesses rapid growth during the epidemic, the company needs more talent with good communication skills and a love for students, she added.