The new career trend, how can we participate in it
(Source: "Guangming Daily"March 26, 2026 Version 07）
[Roundtable Dialogue]
Editor’s note
Cultural and creative product planners and operators, elderly care service technicians, cloud network intelligent operation and maintenance personnel... With the emergence of new technologies, new industries, and new scenarios, these new professions with trendy names and flexible forms are also quietly entering our lives. They seem interesting and novel, but they accurately meet those "unexpected" needs in daily life, making life more convenient, services more considerate, and choices more diverse. New occupations not only expand employment options for young people, but also provide new possibilities for the transformation of traditional workers and stable employment for key groups. This year’s “Government Work Report” emphasizes “cultivating new occupations and new positions around the development of emerging industries and future industries, and enhancing the service industry’s ability to drive employment.” The “15th Five-Year Plan” outline proposes to “actively cultivate new occupations and new positions, and expand new employment spaces such as the digital economy, green economy, and silver economy.” How to transform policy dividends into employment results and promote the standardization, standardization and sustainable development of new occupations? The third edition of the Bright Think Tank People's Livelihood Forum invites experts in related fields to discuss this topic.
Interviewer
Zheng Gongcheng, President of China Society of Social Security, Professor of Renmin University of China
Li Changan, researcher at the National Institute of Opening up, w88 casino
Zhao Wen, researcher at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Host
Guangming Daily reporter Chen Zhiyin Chen Heng
1. Functional positioning of new occupations in the employment pattern
Guangzhitan: This year's "Government Work Report" will cultivate new occupations and new positions as an important part of the implementation of actions to stabilize jobs, expand capacity and improve quality. How do you view the functional positioning of new occupations in the current overall employment pattern? How will new careers change our work and lives?
Li Changan: Currently, the number of people in flexible employment in our country exceeds 200 million, and the number of workers in new employment forms reaches 84 million, accounting for 21% of the total number of employees. They have become an important force in serving people's livelihood and smoothing the economic cycle. Judging from the adjustment and evolution process of my country's occupational classification ceremony, since the establishment of the new occupational information release system in 2019, a total of seven batches of 110 new occupations have been released. Whether it is in the rapidly developing new economic and new business fields or the traditional industrial fields undergoing transformation and upgrading, a large number of new types of work and rich and diverse employment positions have been created. These professions include virtual reality engineering technicians and artificial intelligence trainers in the fields of artificial intelligence, biotechnology and other fields brought about by technological progress and changes, as well as health nurses, community health assistants, decoration housekeepers, etc. created by changes in social concepts and consumption habits. With the rapid development and application of artificial intelligence technology, new occupations and new positions related to artificial intelligence are having a profound impact on our country's labor market. For example, among the 17 new occupations and 42 new job types released in 2025, a "generative artificial intelligence system tester" will be added, and a "generative artificial intelligence animator" job category will be added under the "animator" occupation.
Robotics engineering technicians review test run data of humanoid robots. Xinhua News Agency
Zhao Wen: New occupations play the dual roles of "growth pole" and "stabilizer" in the current employment situation, and achieve the functional positioning of "filling gaps, optimizing structure, and promoting quality improvement". On the one hand, new occupations and new positions are the “new engine” for employment expansion. These occupations are widely distributed in the fields of digital economy, intelligent manufacturing, modern services, green and low-carbon, etc., directly creating a large number of new jobs, and also deriving a series of related positions in traditional industries, forming a multiplication effect of "one core occupation drives a series of jobs". On the other hand, new occupations are a new way to optimize the employment structure and deal with structural contradictions. Most of them belong to knowledge-intensive and technology-intensive fields, which have improved the skill content and salary level of the positions, and promoted the upgrading of the overall employment structure towards high technology and high added value. At the same time, the new "cloud-based" employment form relying on the Internet platform breaks geographical restrictions and provides new opportunities for workers around major cities and in third- and fourth-tier cities.
Zheng Gongcheng: It can be seen that most of these new occupations and new positions are linked by digital technology, closely integrating workers’ individual struggles with industrial upgrading and social needs, opening up a broad space for workers to start businesses and find employment, and also promoting profound changes in the employment pattern. The substantive significance of this change is to break the traditional "regular" or "standard" employment form based on one-to-one labor relations, fixed workplaces, standard working hours, etc., which can not only quickly adapt to market demand and adjust the employment direction, but also give workers the freedom, autonomy, and individuality to choose employment positions, thereby shaping a new employment form. It can be expected that new occupations and new positions will continue to emerge in the future, and traditional labor relations will no longer be the "formal" and "standard" in the employment field. Social security must also make corresponding adjustments, that is, loosen the tight ties with traditional labor relations, and provide flexible services to respond to flexible employment.
2. How new professions can solve the structural contradictions of employment
Bright Think Tank: Which fields currently have the greatest potential for cultivating new careers? What significance does this have for solving the structural contradictions in employment such as "some people have no work to do" and "there is work but no one can do it"?
Zhao Wen: Currently, the fields with the greatest potential for new career cultivation are mainly concentrated in three major directions. The first is the catalytic field of new business forms. With the in-depth application of artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, new occupations such as generative artificial intelligence system testers, cloud network intelligent operation and maintenance personnel, and artificial intelligence digital human trainers continue to emerge, with huge potential. New occupations related to artificial intelligence alone can create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the short term; the second is the field of new consumption, focusing on consumption upgrades and people's livelihood security, elderly care services, health management, cultural In subdivided fields such as creative planning and community services, new occupations such as elderly care service technicians, sleep health managers, and cultural and creative product planning operators have emerged. The third is the new technology-driven field. Relying on the carbon peak carbon neutrality goal and the development of new productivity, low-altitude economy, new energy, energy conservation and environmental protection and other fields have given birth to new occupations such as drone flight planners, carbon emission managers, and hydrogen fuel cell testers. There is broad room for future growth.
In April 2025, the country’s first long-term care nurse (level five) certification examination was held in Nantong, Jiangsu. Xinhua News Agency
Zheng Gongcheng: Based on the national strategic deployment and the "15th Five-Year Plan", the areas with the greatest potential for new career cultivation include key national policy support, rapid iteration of technology, and people's livelihood security demands that adapt to changes in demographic structure. Among them, the development of the digital economy and artificial intelligence, which is supported by the state, not only requires highly educated R&D talents, but also urgently needs a large number of application-oriented practical talents. Positions such as generative artificial intelligence system applicators are suitable for both graduates of relevant majors in universities and young and middle-aged workers who have received vocational training. The rapid iteration of technology promotes the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, promotes greater development of intelligent manufacturing, low-altitude economy and new energy, and provides hundreds of thousands or even millions of new jobs for workers with professional skills, such as intelligent manufacturing system operation and maintenance personnel, new energy vehicle maintenance workers, carbon sink measurement evaluators, etc. Due to the profound changes in the population structure brought about by the declining birthrate and aging population, people's livelihood demands have become diverse and complex. We need a large number of health nurses, ability assessors for the elderly, birth defect prevention and control consultants, etc. The potential gap for nursing-related talents has exceeded 10 million.
In recent years, there have been more than 12 million college graduates, and college graduates are a key group in the employment field. To change the phenomenon of "there are positions but no one can do them, and there are personnel but no suitable positions", we must strive to promote major adjustments in higher education and vocational education, including the training concept of professional talents, professional settings and system training, which should all adapt to the requirements of digitalization and intelligence. To this end, in addition to adding a large number of new majors that meet the requirements of new occupations and new positions, we must also focus on injecting a digital and intelligent perspective into traditional majors and focus on running schools in a classified and hierarchical manner. College graduates have strong adaptability and competitiveness for new occupations and new positions. An organic linkage mechanism between the education department and the human resources and social security department should be established to give the education department greater responsibility in promoting the employment of college graduates and truly realize the simultaneous promotion of education and employment.
Li Changan: At present, there is a structural contradiction in the employment field in our country between industrial demand and human resource supply, that is, the coexistence of "some people have no work to do" and "there is work and no one to do it." If we look at it from the demand side, in fact, against the background of upgrading the industrial structure and accelerating technological innovation and application, many new economies and new business formats have very strong demand for labor. For example, the digital economy is a representative economic form of new productivity. At present, the scale of my country's digital economy exceeds 50 trillion yuan. At the same time, the number of people employed in the digital field is expected to exceed 400 million during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, accounting for nearly 60% of total employment. However, the current overall digital talent gap has reached 25 million to 30 million, and the shortage problem is very prominent. The domestic service industry is an important field that promotes consumption, stabilizes employment, and benefits people's livelihood. Currently, there are about 30 million employees in my country's domestic service industry, but the actual market demand exceeds 50 million. It is worth noting that in the process of promoting the development of modern agriculture, the shortage of talents in the fields of agricultural production digitization, intelligent agricultural machinery operation, agricultural planning, upstream and downstream sales, and agricultural product e-commerce is very prominent. For example, according to estimates from the agricultural department, the talent gap for rural e-commerce across the country reaches 3.5 million, with a large gap in technical talents such as operations promotion and art design. Therefore, accelerating the resolution of the mismatch between supply and demand in the labor market is the key to alleviating structural employment difficulties.
3. How new professions and new business formats can promote each other
Guangzhiku: Many new occupations are deeply bound to new business formats, new scenarios, and new industries. How to promote the deep integration of new occupations with industrial needs, consumption upgrades, and people's livelihood services to achieve mutual promotion and common development and work in the same direction?
Zheng Gongcheng: New careers are new things that are closely tied to new industries, new scenarios, and new business formats. They are also strategic areas with broad prospects. Facing the future, it is necessary to further promote the in-depth integration of new occupations with industrial needs, consumption upgrades, and people's livelihood services, and build a closed-loop ecosystem of "demand traction - occupation empowerment - industry feedback". Guided by consumption upgrading and industrial transformation, we can accurately meet people's livelihood needs and spawn more refined emerging professions. At the same time, we will further standardize the national vocational certification standards and training system, promote the integration of industry and education to strengthen the supply of skills, guide resource allocation through industrial policies, reshape the connotation of occupations through digital technology empowerment and cross-border integration innovation scenarios, standardize the supervision of new business formats, and achieve in-depth integration and development of new occupations and new industries, new scenarios, and new business formats.
Li Changan: To achieve the deep integration of new occupations with industrial needs, consumption upgrades, and people’s livelihood needs, it is necessary to formulate relevant standards and specifications to guide the healthy development of new occupations and promote new business formats to be more standardized and professional. Collect, standardize and release new occupation information to continuously enhance the social recognition of new occupations and expand workers’ employment options. Enterprises are at the forefront of technological progress and employment needs, and the emergence of new occupations and new positions is directly related to enterprise practice. While actively giving play to the guiding and normative role of the government, we must also pay attention to the subjective role of the employer. In this way, the supply and demand of new occupations and new positions can be effectively connected, thereby realizing that new occupations, new positions and new economic and new business formats can promote each other and work in the same direction.
Zhao Wen: The vitality of new professions lies in being driven by industrial demand and consumer demand, with the creation of economic value and social value as the core, forming a virtuous cycle.
In order to ensure the close connection between new career settings and industrial needs and prevent disconnection, a systematic docking mechanism must first be established. Specifically, it includes: First, dynamic anchoring of demand, regular tracking of trends in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, low-altitude economy, and smart manufacturing through industrial big data analysis, corporate surveys, and skills gap assessments on a regular basis to ensure that new career cultivation is based on accurate market signals. The second is to deepen the integration of industry and education, and invite leading enterprises, industry associations and colleges to participate in the standard formulation, curriculum design and certification evaluation of new occupations to match the skill requirements with the actual positions. The third is to build a feedback closed loop, establish a new occupation employment tracking and effect evaluation system, and dynamically adjust occupational content and training directions based on industrial upgrading and job market feedback. Achieve a virtuous cycle of "industry giving birth to new professions and new professions empowering industries" so that new professions can effectively provide talent support for industrial upgrading.
Secondly, align with consumption upgrades so that new occupations can accurately match the high-quality needs of the masses. As residents' living standards improve, personalized, refined, and diversified consumer demands are growing day by day. New occupations have great potential in these fields. The rise of professions such as community health assistants, service dog trainers, and travel photography customizers is a direct response to emerging consumer hotspots such as health, emotion, and experience. At the same time, we must be guided by residents' ever-escalating consumer demands, force new professions to standardize service processes, improve professional capabilities, ensure service quality, and promote the sustainable and healthy development of new professions while adapting to needs and responding to expectations.
Organizers organize clothing at clients’ homes. Xinhua News Agency
Finally, take root in people’s livelihood services and let the new profession become a “new force” to protect people’s livelihood. Many new occupations directly address the pain points of people's livelihood, focusing on areas such as elderly care, childcare, community services, and public safety. They fill the gap between public services and market services, promote the extension of new occupations to the grassroots, fill the gap in grassroots livelihood services, and allow the new occupations to not only help stabilize employment, but also enhance people's happiness. Faced with the huge demand for new livelihood occupations, on the investment side, it is necessary to innovate financial support methods, through government purchase of services, tax concessions and "insurance + service" and other models to alleviate the financial pressure on grassroots; on the development side, broaden career channels, establish clear skill levels and salary systems, open up lateral mobility space in related fields, and break the "ceiling" of career development; at the same time, improve social security to adapt to flexible employment, strengthen professional identity and social respect, continue to promote targeted training through w88 casino-enterprise cooperation, and achieve accurate docking of training and jobs. By systematically solving problems such as "difficulty in investment, difficulty in growth, and difficulty in ensuring security", we will guide talents to gather in fields such as elderly care, child care, and community services, so that new occupations can truly become a sustainable force that can make up for shortcomings, stabilize employment, and benefit people's livelihood.
4. How new careers help young people grow
Bright Intelligence: What are the characteristics of new occupations that fit the employment preferences of the new generation? How to optimize the education, skills training and vocational certification system to enable young people to adapt to new occupations faster and better, establish themselves in new positions, and delve into new fields based on their own interests?
Li Changan: As a new force in the workplace, young people pay attention to both immediate material rewards and long-term career development when identifying a “good job”. According to the "2025 China's Best Employer Selection Report" released by Zhaopin.com, college students believe that the top three most important characteristics of a "good job" are "good benefits", "competitive salary" and "training and development opportunities". The focus on "job stability" is significantly lower than benefits, salary and development opportunities, ranking fourth. There are also more and more young people joining the ranks of flexible employment, starting their own businesses, and establishing "one-person companies". Of course, whether you choose employment or entrepreneurship, in an innovation-driven era, personal knowledge, quality and professional skills are always the decisive factors. At present, there is an urgent need to strengthen education and training in digital economy and artificial intelligence knowledge and skills for workers, including young people, so as to eliminate the "digital divide" as soon as possible and enable more workers to enjoy the dividends brought by technological progress.
Zheng Gongcheng: Compared with the previous generation of workers, the new generation group’s employment is not to make a living, but to find a job that they are interested in. They pursue more freedom and autonomy, and their choice of positions is more personalized, pursuing self-worth and high growth. At the same time, the new generation group grew up in the digital age and has a natural affinity and enthusiasm for learning of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things, so they can quickly accept new knowledge and master new skills. This kind of employment preference is often difficult to achieve in the traditional formal employment field. New occupations provide sufficient space and opportunities for this employment preference. Many new occupations show the characteristics of "task-oriented". In order to further enhance the adaptability of the new generation entering the workplace, it is obviously necessary, important and urgent to keep pace with the times and optimize the professional setting and curriculum system of higher education, open up the channel between higher education and vocational education, clarify the national standards for new occupations and new positions, and improve the rights and interests protection mechanism for people employed in new industries. Take elderly care services as an example. With the arrival of the peak aging period, the number of disabled and demented elderly people and empty-nest elderly people in need of care services has increased significantly. Workers engaged in elderly care services and nursing must not only possess humanistic care and nursing skills, but also need to be proficient in the use and use of digital tools, maintain robots that replace human labor, and make good use of AI medical services. Compared with traditional human care, this type of position is highly in line with the new generation's characteristics of being close to technology, pursuing growth, and willing to engage in valuable work. It also urgently calls for adaptive adjustments in the training system for elderly care or nursing service professionals.
Carbon fiber product molding and manufacturing workers lay out carbon fiber laminates in the company workshop. Xinhua News Agency
Zhao Wen: New careers are in line with the employment preferences of the new generation: First, they focus on the realization of self-worth. New careers rely more on personal skills, aesthetics and creativity, allowing young people to combine interests and careers to achieve personalized development; second, they pursue flexibility and freedom. Most new careers adopt a flexible employment model, breaking the fixed commute and fixed office. The restriction of public locations gives young people more room for independent arrangements; the third is to value career growth. New careers are in a stage of rapid development and have flexible promotion paths, allowing young people to achieve self-iteration; the fourth is to focus on social value. Many new careers focus on people's livelihood services, green development and other fields, allowing young people to gain a sense of accomplishment and social identity, which is in line with the value pursuits of the new generation.
In terms of education and training, universities and vocational schools are encouraged to dynamically adjust their major settings and implement the "Integration of Industry, Education and Evaluation" model to allow enterprises to deeply participate in talent training and shorten the distance between young people from campus to work. Guangdong's "micro-major" construction in areas such as digital marketing and low-altitude economy is a good practice. In terms of skills training, we will continue to implement the "Skills Light Up the Future" training action, develop training syllabuses and teaching materials suitable for new occupations, encourage leading enterprises and industry organizations to participate in training, and improve the pertinence of training; at the same time, use multiple online and offline channels to carry out flexible and convenient training to lower the threshold for participation. In terms of vocational certification, we will speed up the development of national occupational standards, especially new occupational standards, and implement the "new eight-level worker" vocational skill level system so that young people's skills are recognized and there is a path for growth; the certification process is simplified to make certification more in line with the actual needs of the job, helping young people to quickly establish themselves in positions and deepen their fields.
5. How to achieve long-term development in new careers
Guangzhiku: To give new professional groups a greater sense of gain, belonging, and honor requires coordinated efforts from the government, enterprises, institutions, and society. Next, in what aspects can we improve institutional supply and optimize the employment environment, so that new occupations can truly become a long-term driving force for stable employment, promoting personal growth, and supporting high-quality development?
Li Changan: Faced with the profound changes and updates in young people’s career cognition and employment concepts, we must accelerate the construction of an institutional environment, policy system and service guarantees that are suitable for them, and the government, enterprises, institutions, society and other forces must work together. Colleges and universities need to further strengthen career planning education and employment and entrepreneurship guidance, keep up with industrial changes and new career development trends, promote dynamic adjustment of subject and major settings, and iterative updates of curriculum systems, and strive to improve the accuracy of talent training and market demand, industry development, and job requirements, meet young people's diverse expectations for independent development, value realization, and growth space, while also continuously delivering high-quality applied, compound, and innovative talents to the job market. We will continue to improve a series of support policies for youth employment and entrepreneurship, strengthen policy coordination and implementation results, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of practitioners in new occupations, and eliminate worries for the majority of young people to join new occupations with peace of mind and gain a stable foothold in new positions. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen vocational skills training, improve the lifelong learning system covering the entire process, improve workers' employment adaptability, enhance career transition and sustainable development capabilities, and help young people better seize employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in new occupations.
Zhao Wen: To promote the long-term development of new occupations and enhance the sense of gain, belonging, and honor among practitioners, it is necessary to build a coordinated system of government guidance, business entities, w88 casino support, and social participation, focusing on improving institutional supply and optimizing the employment environment. At the government level, it is necessary to strengthen policy support and normative guidance: first, speed up the improvement of laws and regulations related to new occupations, clarify the rights and obligations of practitioners, standardize the employment relationship between enterprises and practitioners, especially for flexible employment forms, improve the social security connection mechanism, and solve problems such as difficulty in social security payment and weak protection of rights and interests of practitioners; The second is to increase policy support, provide entrepreneurship subsidies and tax exemptions to practitioners in new occupations, and provide financial support to enterprises and institutions that carry out new vocational training, so as to transform policy dividends into employment effectiveness; the third is to accelerate the formulation and promotion of new occupational standards, promote the standardized and standardized development of new occupations, and enhance social recognition. At the enterprise level, it is necessary to fulfill the main responsibilities and protect the rights and growth of practitioners: first, improve the salary and welfare system, implement a skills-oriented salary distribution system, realize "more skilled people and innovators", and improve the income level of practitioners; second, build a skills improvement platform to provide regular training and job promotion channels for practitioners to help them achieve career growth; third, respect the value of practitioners, create an equal and inclusive working atmosphere, and enhance the sense of belonging of practitioners.
Zheng Gongcheng: Due to the lag in the supply of relevant systems, the employment of new occupational groups still lacks necessary and reasonable labor and employment system regulations, and faces practical challenges such as unstable employment relationships, high uncertainty, and difficulty in protecting rights and interests. This year's National People's Congress and the National People's Congress paid great attention to new occupational groups. The "Government Work Report" clearly stated that policies to support flexible employment and new employment forms should be introduced to participate in employee insurance. A comprehensive and multi-level support system needs to be built to ensure that new professional groups have a greater sense of gain, belonging and honor. To strengthen top-level design and institutional guarantees, the core task is to incorporate support for the development of new occupations into the employment priority strategy, promote the improvement of relevant policies and regulations, improve the rights and interests protection system, and provide solid institutional support for new occupational groups. In particular, in view of the problems faced by workers in the new employment form in terms of occupational safety, definition of labor relations, labor remuneration, social insurance, etc., they will be included in labor security supervision to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers. In addition, as direct employers or platform providers of new occupational groups, enterprises should take the initiative to assume labor protection responsibilities, improve labor conditions and salary distribution mechanisms, strive to expand career development space, and regard supporting new occupational groups as an important aspect of creating social value. At the social level, we should jointly create a good atmosphere that respects labor and advocates skills, such as providing relevant services through w88 union organizations, communities, and public welfare organizations, and encouraging social organizations to build new professional ability improvement platforms to help their career development and ability appreciation. At the same time, the contribution of new occupational groups to economic and social development will be widely publicized to form positive public opinion. The coordinated efforts of the government, enterprises, and society will be able to effectively help new professional groups obtain clear career development paths, clear rights protection systems, and smooth social integration and self-identity, thereby systematically enhancing their sense of gain, belonging, and honor.
Attachment: Original report link
