Around 150,000 graduates and students from more than 1,700 universities in China and abroad attended a government-backed recruitment fair in the southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong over the weekend, where they competed for tens of thousands of jobs and internships.

According to organizers, the event, the largest of its kind in China this year, offered around 65,000 full-time positions and more than 10,000 internships from 1,825 major employers. It was jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and the Guangdong provincial government as part of ongoing efforts to attract talent to the region.

Employers included Fortune 500 companies, State-owned enterprises, listed firms, research institutes, universities and hospitals.

According to the organizers, the positions on offer ranged from nearly 9,000 for doctoral candidates, over 12,000 for master's degree holders, more than 35,000 for bachelor's degree holders, and over 8,000 for associate degree holders, covering a spectrum from high-end research to skilled labor.

Nearly half of the roles offered annual salaries above 200,000 yuan ($28,600), while some senior positions paid more than one million yuan a year. Pay for top academic and research roles was negotiable, organizers said.

The fair also featured an "APEC Talent Matching Service Zone", as part of Shenzhen's role as host of the 2026 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. The zone brought together foreign-funded firms and Chinese companies aiming to expand overseas.

A recruitment specialist from UBTECH Robotics, a leading humanoid robotics company headquartered in Shenzhen, said the "APEC Talent Matching Service Zone" attracted quite a few international candidates, including applicants from India, Pakistan, the Middle East and various European countries.

Li Chunbo, director of human resources at Shenzhen Technology University, said that all 200 recruitment brochures prepared were distributed by the morning of the first day. Among the applicants were graduates from internationally-rated universities such as the University of Hong Kong, ETH Zurich, the National University of Singapore and the University of Edinburgh.

Li Lu, a recent PhD graduate from Wuhan University, said the event combined opportunities rarely seen in one place.

"The number of positions is huge, the quality is high and the pay exceeded my expectations," he said.