HEFEI — Emerging professions are opening up more job opportunities in China.

Entrusted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in May, the China Employment Training Technical Instruction Center published a notice, planning to add 10 new professions in the country, including engineering and technical staff for blockchain, nucleic acid testers and evaluators of the health of senior citizens.

Yan Ying, a seasoned technical expert with a blockchain company, said her team recruited more than 10 interns from campuses at the beginning of this year, and some of them have already started working.

"We will have another round of recruitment this fall, and we hope to hire more talents," she said.

The emergence of the new professions is a reflection of rising demand for talent in these fields, and the center's notice is a sign that China is paying increasing attention to and providing more support for emerging professions, Yan said.

Creating jobs and protecting livelihoods are high on the agenda of the government.

In May, China's urban unemployment rate decreased 0.1 percentage point month-on-month, but still, about 1.2 percent of the employed are in a state of furlough, a rise from previous years. Meanwhile, the number of college graduates this year will reach a record 8.74 million.

The new professions are expected to help decrease the pressure of job hunting.

With new professions come more job vacancies.

For instance, the rise of livestreaming has led to more jobs in the fields of speech synthesis, dubbing and electronic sports, according to big data provided by search engine Baidu.

Li Xinmei is a grid-based community worker in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province. The job is meant to help with communication, solving disputes, security, organizing activities, promoting laws and regulations, among others, in the community "grid" that one is in charge of.

"As a grid-based community worker, my job involves so many aspects," said Li, 37. "We are in charge of daily management and services for more than 1,000 families in the community."

Li said they are in dire need of more workers.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, Li and other workers worked late into the night, and didn't take a day off for more than 50 days during the busiest period.

"I heard that grid-based community work has become a new profession," she said. "The public will get to know the job better and our team will become bigger."

China has organized training for these new professions. By early June, the China Employment Training Technical Instruction Center had uploaded on the internet training materials of 13 new professions, with plans to train 1 million employees in new vocations this year.

"The development of science and technology has created a series of new professions, and the epidemic compounded the need for talents in these fields," said Wang Yunfei, an associate professor at the School of Sociology and Political Science, Anhui University. "Under such circumstances, job-seekers should enhance their abilities, while schools and society should guide them properly."