BEIJING — China's Ministry of Education has encouraged companies to move recruitment online and provide more jobs for college graduates, whose number is expected to hit a record 8.74 million this year.

More companies have responded to the call and opened job positions to college graduates on various online platforms amid their accelerated efforts to resume business.

Data from China's tech giant Alibaba showed that nearly 1,000 companies have launched recruitment programs on its online-payment service platform Alipay. The daily number of job-related searches on the platform in May had increased tenfold from April as of May 14.

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen were among the top cities with the highest demand for employees, the data showed.

The country's human resources and social security authorities earlier made public a list of 10 new jobs including internet marketing specialists, online learning instructors and blockchain application operators to provide young job seekers more career options.