E-sportsman And Drone Pilot Become Officially Recognised Jobs In China

China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the General Administration of Market Supervision, and the Bureau of Statistics have jointly announced 13 new job titles in the country. The last time additions were made to China's recognised jobs list was over 4 years ago.

The 13 new jobs recognised by the Chinese government include artificial intelligence (AI) engineering technicians, Internet of Things (IoT) engineering technicians, big data engineering technicians, cloud computing engineering technicians, digital managers, and building information model technicians, according to the website for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, which is responsible for China's labour policy standards and regulations. 

E-sports operators, e-sportsmen, drone pilots, agricultural managers, IoT installation commissioners, industrial robot system operators, as well as industrial robot system maintenance personnel are also among the 13 new jobs recognised in the country.

These occupations, mostly derived from the high-tech industry, are the first-batch of new job titles to be released since the promulgation of the 2015 National Occupational Classification that was unveiled by the government four years ago, which included over 2,000 new, officially recognised occupations.

The latest release of new professions reflect the upgrades made to the tech-related industries and the widespread application of information technology, the government said in the statement.

But the announcement is merely the government playing catch-up, Chinese reports said, as the size of China's e-sports industry has already exceeded $10 billion in 2018, while the overall player-base has exceeded 400 million. 

In November, Chinese eSports club Invictus Gaming (iG) claimed China's first world championship for the video game League of Legends (LoL) after beating European team Fnatic in South Korea, eight years after the country began pursuing the championship.

The government is still slow to adapt to certain market changes however, as China has only issued a total of 27,000 drone pilot certificates as of the first quarter of 2018, which is a far cry from the predicted market demand of 400,000 drone operators by 2020. Drone pilots have long been regarded as a high-income group in China due to the buoyant demand in agricultural irrigation. 

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