Abstract: The dual pressures of employment and the COVID-19 have made the employment of new college graduates unprecedentedly difficult. The research group conducted a comprehensive survey on the employment of university and college graduates in 34 provinces of China, autonomous regions and municipalities during the epidemic from April to June, 2020. Based on the collected data, we have the following research findings. Half of the after-tax salary was concentrated at 3001 to 5000 RMB, and the stability of the job on arrival was relatively high.The subjective factors of unemployed graduates and the objective epidemic situation increased the difficulty of employment. Job location and salary were the most valued by the new graduates. The epidemic did not significantly changed the employment expectations of unemployed graduates. The expected job type offers a poor match with the employers’ main job type, at the same time, the expected salary of the unemployed graduates was usually higher than the actual salary of the employed graduates and the national monthly disposable income. Graduates' satisfaction evaluation of college employment guidance service was generally positive. However, the issues such as small scale of full-time teachers, professional level was not high etc. Through a logistic regression analysis, it was found that gender, place of origin, family economic status, school type, school level, subject type, subject level, educational background, academic performance, foreign language level, expected salary, job-hunting cost and entrepreneurial consideration had significant differences in influencing employment among different groups. Meanwhile, the four employment problems tend to be ignored and need to be taken seriously. Greater attention must be paid to unemployed graduates from rural areas, the precise assistance of graduates who face financial difficulties in finding jobs; concealed and unavoidable employment discrimination against rural graduates; the issue of substantively helping graduates start businesses to promote employment.

Key words: COVID-19, new graduates of universities and colleges, employing unit, employment