BEIJING, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- About 33 percent of Chinese companies have begun their autumn campus recruitment, with another 20 percent preparing to begin, a recent survey showed.

Among enterprises with recruitment plans, 42.6 percent saw a year-on-year increase in hiring, according to a survey conducted by Zhaopin.com, China's leading human resources service provider.

With the job market still recovering, it is a tough year for university students set to enter the labor market.

Engineering graduates were among the top earners in 2019, compared with their peers from other majors. Business administration, psychology and communications graduates were also well paid.

Those majoring in materials science and engineering, electronic science and technology, software engineering and other digitalization-related fields have become favorites of enterprises in the competitive job market, said Li Qiang, executive vice president of Zhaopin.com.

China's employment has remained stable in recent months, with the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas standing at 5.6 percent in August, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Stable employment is now in a more prominent position in the country's policy-making, and a slew of supportive measures has been taken amid the epidemic, such as launching online recruitment fairs and providing free training for university students.