With the country's job market deteriorating due to the rapid economic slowdown, college graduates are struggling to find jobs even though they have lower salary expectations, surveys found yesterday.

According to Career, an online job consulting company, less than half of 936 respondents who graduated four-year colleges last year said that they currently have a job. Of the 432 respondents who said they are employed, 29.7 percent were irregular workers, the survey showed.

The figure shows a sharp drop in the percentage of employment from similar surveys in previous years, Career said. The company's data showed that the employment rate in 2007 was 57.9 percent and 62.8 percent in 2006.

"As the recession persists, an increasing number of college graduates are having difficulties in finding jobs," Kim Ki-tae, the head of Career was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying.

The respondents with jobs said they sent in their resumes 28 times on average before getting a job.

About 13 percent of respondents with jobs said they applied more than 50 times. Only 49.5 percent of respondents with jobs said they are working for companies that are related to their degree's field.

The survey shows signs of the country's job market already contracting when about a half-million college graduates are to join the job market this month.

The job market for the 20-29 age bracket is already thin as companies are refraining from hiring this year, data released by the National Statistical Office showed last month.

According to the NSO, the employment rate for those in their 20s stood at 57.8 percent in December, the lowest since May 1999, when the country was reeling from the Asian financial crisis.

Another survey showed that graduates are willing to get a job even though they will get paid less this year.

JobKorea, another online consulting firm on the job market found that some 1,100 four-year college graduates want to get 21.43 million won ($15,411) on average for their annual salary.

In a survey conducted by the company, students anticipate they will be paid 22.97 million won for an annual salary for an entry-level job from foreign companies. Respondents think they would get less from the country's major companies or state-run companies than foreign companies.

The result shows that graduates are willing to work with only 70-80 percent of the actually salary projected for this year, the job consulting company said. Average annual payment for an entry-level job at big companies was 31.02 million won this year, it added.

By Cho Chung-un