As this year's largest projected class of university students to date approaches graduation, many are being forced to reevaluate their educations, economic viability and job expectations as China's job market experiences a drought of skilled laborers.

Chinanews.com.cn reported last month that the shortage of migrant workers in cities along Pearl River Delta is now reaching 2,000,000. Although many companies throughout Guangdong Province have raised the minimum wage for workers by 30 percent, some offering salaries as high as 5,000 yuan a month, many enterprises still are coming up short despite the large number of college grads that remain unemployed.

In contrast, this year's number of college graduates is predicted to reach a record high of 6,300,000, about 190,000 more than last year, according to a xinhuanet.com report Tuesday. This number is expected to further strain the graduate job market.

"The structure of the Chinese economy is the underlying reason for this paradoxical situation," He Yong, deputy secretary of Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, said as quoted in the People's Daily Tuesday.

According to He, the labor shortage is mainly hitting industries such as electronics manufacturing, clothing and textiles, usually unable to attract college grads which have higher salary expectations.

Yang Yansui, the director at the research center of employment security at Tsinghua University, pointed out that lack of vocational job training is another reason leading to the changing job market.

"Vocational education is underdeveloped in China, creating a surfeit of college students and a lack of skilled labor," he said.

Besides these reasons, Chen Ning, a senior advisor at employment website zhaopin.com, said college students should take the initiative and adjust job-hunting strategy.

"Skilled laborers are in demand because they are experienced and can fill the position immediately, unlike new graduates which companies have to invest money and time in training," said Chen. "Students have to face reality and lower their expectations a little, get some work experience and use it as a springboard for a better one."

Students are having mixed opinions about how to adjust to the job market.

"There's nothing wrong with blue collar jobs if I can't find what I'm looking for after I graduate. As long as I can live independently and on my own, there's not shame in that at all," said Liu Junhuan, a third year English grad student at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

"Experts always say that college students should lower their expectations, but my parents have put in so much money, time and effort to give me the best education and I think that they have higher expectations for their son, and I share those expectations," said Wang Qiliang, a engineering senior at Beijing Institute of Technology.

"If I couldn't find the job I want, I would borrow money from my parents to start my own business," he said.