BEIJING, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing municipal government announced Thursday that 20,000 college graduates are expected to apply for village official posts in the capital's outskirts this year but only 3,000 of them will be chosen.

    By early March, 12,000 college graduates in most universities in Beijing had applied to work as village officials in the countryside, said a municipal government spokesman, which has set a goal of allocating at least one college graduate to village heads in each of the 3,987 villages over a period of three years.

    With another 3,000 college graduates appointed at the end of 2008, the municipality will have at least two college graduates working in a village on the outskirts.

    Last year, 2,016 college graduates were selected from more than 10,000 candidates and sent to work as assistants to village heads or Party secretaries.

    Since June 2005, the Chinese government has encouraged college graduates to work in rural areas with the goal of establishing at least one college graduate in every village within three to five years.

    This year's "No. 1 document" issued jointly by the State Council, China's cabinet and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, reiterates the policy of encouraging college graduates and secondary vocational school graduates to work in villages to boost rural development.

    The shrinking job market in urban areas has prompted more college graduates to consider working in rural areas. The government has promised those who have three years of service in villages priority in applying for new jobs in government departments or large companies.