JOBS in civil service remain the key attraction for graduating students, closely followed by the lure of working for foreign companies, a survey released yesterday showed.

The Shanghai Education Commission said about 177,000 students have appeared for their graduation examination this year. And the Shanghai Statistics Bureau surveyed 2,071 of them, of which 33.3 percent said their first choice of work would be in government institutions. While it was still a top draw, the numbers were down 0.7 percent and 3.2 percent from 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Foreign companies, which surpassed state-owned companies to become the second preferred choice last year, were continuing to gain in popularity.