Chinese youth are transitioning into new professional fields
New professions have been emerging in China for the past few years due to the fast-paced development of new digital technologies and increasing labor categories.
These new roles have increased employment options. In China, there were 1639 identified occupations in 2022, which were 158 more than what they were in 2015, according to a national classification of occupations, and 6% of the new roles were related to digital technology.
Younger Chinese workers are preferring digital technologies
Due to the aggressive competition in the domestic job market, Chinese youth are eagerly drawing upon these growing professions, spanning from machine learning engineers and AI programmers to pet nurses and house caretakers.
Virtual architecture is a field that is commonly related to the gaming industry and animations. To develop real-world landscapes in the virtual world it uses many different softwares and artificial intelligence algorithms to create an immersive experience for gamers, film audiences, and virtual reality users.
Wang is a virtual architect who graduated in gaming and entertainment and is a freshman in this field, but he is confident about the better future prospects of his job. He says,
“This technology has vast potential, and I can use it to represent the whole world.”
Virtual architects can also create different scenarios online along with entertainment-related work, to meet user demands, like online exhibitions, 3D meeting rooms, and online press conferences.
Due to their promising prospects and flexibility, other new roles around digital technology are also becoming popular among new job seekers. Large language models, intelligent manufacturing, and AI-generated content are the most preferred options, as they will attract more graduates in 2023, according to the data.
Chen Yun, who is the director of the employment and entrepreneurial research office at the Chinese Academy of Labour and Social Security, says,
“The digital industry fits well with young people’s interests and personal pursuits, thus offering more vacancies that match their employment expectations.”
Source: The State Council Information Office of China.
Emerging new job roles
To satisfy people’s personalized needs, many other service occupations have also emerged, which include services such as dog walking, decluttering, and door-to-door cooking. A declutterer, Ma Xiaoyi leads a team to tidy up her customers’ homes. She says that she first learns about her customers’ lifestyles and habits, then makes a tailored plan for decluttering to satisfy their demands.
The plan involves various tasks by her team, like sorting, selecting, clearing, decluttering, and displaying by utilizing storage and divider boxes to make her customers’ homes look tidy and feel more comfortable to live in.
Ma has also expanded her business by providing classes for parent-child decluttering, related books on the subject, and video courses. She believes her profession is promising, as she says.
“Facing a new job, we should try and get to work boldly instead of waiting and seeing what happens. You will not know whether it suits you until you try, and you will succeed only with persistent efforts.”
Speaking of the new job roles, Li Qiang, who is the executive vice president of Zhaopin, which is an online local recruitment platform in China, said,
“The new professions that have emerged and those still in incubation are a blue ocean in the job market, which have great potential and plenty of promise.”
Source: The State Council Information Office of China.
Li also said that they encourage the younger generation to enter new occupations and avail themselves of the latest opportunities with a positive attitude.
Child and elderly care are also fields where new roles are emerging due to the nature of diversified needs. A new law on family education will also be in effect soon, and a new role of family education tutor has also been added to the national classification of professions. Experts think that this new work role will create more than a million jobs after the industry standard gets set.
A report published in July 2023 by Zhaopin Platform and the National School of Development of Peking University revealed that China’s workforce has not adapted AI technology to a satisfactory level, and some white-collar workers in fields like secretarial work, marketing, and finance are the most affected.
