New professions enrich, stabilize job market

HANGZHOU－Wearing delicate makeup, a traditional hairstyle and the ancient Chinese clothing Hanfu, a young lady posed for a vintage photoshoot. Lu Zi, a clothing stylist, helped to bring the lady and centuries-old retro style back in vogue.

Hanfu, the traditional clothing of the Han ethnic group until the end of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), has become increasingly popular among young people in China in recent years, known for its sweeping ropes-crossed collars and wide sleeves.

"I will design the makeup and hairstyle for my customers and bring back the elegant retro clothing style," Lu said.

"As a fan of Hanfu myself, I chose to be a stylist specializing in Hanfu two years ago. I have helped more than 300 customers dress up for different occasions."

The profession of crawfish taster has also sprung up alongside new industries in China such as Hanfu stylists that have emerged over the years to cope with rising new market demand.

Mid-April is when crawfish begin to pour into the markets in Hubei province famous for the spicy delicacy. During this time, Xu Hui is paid to taste the crawfish in a factory in the provincial capital Wuhan.

Crawfish need to undergo a series of procedures on the assembly line before they are brought to the dinner tables. Xu tastes the ready-to-go crawfish to make sure they are of good quality.

Majoring in food safety, Xu usually tastes 130 crawfish per day, weighing about 3 kg. "We have strict standards to check the crawfish," he said.

The booming AI industry also creates many new opportunities. Gong Fei and his brother are among those who have benefited from the high-tech field. In March, they decided to go back to their hometown in Tongren, Guizhou, to be AI trainers.

Their duty is to train the machines to tell whether there is a point for a goal in a ball game. The new job can fetch a monthly pay of up to 6,000 yuan ($850) and allows them to work from home.

"More and more people use their mobile phones to watch films, sports and games, and our job is to support the artificial intelligence technology to select good video clips for the audience," Gong said.

People born in the 1980s and 1990s have taken 90 percent of the new jobs in China's emerging new service industry and 22 percent of them are born after 1995, according to Zhaopin, an internet-based human resources service provider.

Alipay, Alibaba's online-payment service, said it has helped create 40 kinds of new jobs employing more than 7 million people, mostly young people in third-and fourth-tier cities.

"People in our generation hope to pursue our personal interests based on our own values. We are more open to new chances, making us more flexible when choosing jobs," Lu said.

"The new jobs reflect the development of technology and society and people's growing desires for better lives, which are important to a stable employment market," said Yang Weiguo, a professor of the Renmin University of China in Beijing.