More than 13,000 security guards are urgently needed in Beijing, thanks to upgraded security at schools and a declining interest from young men.

A security guard stands watch outside a primary school in Beijing.

The latest report from the Beijing municipal bureau of human resource and social security said there were 13,700 security positions available, with only 2,015 applications so far.

The shortage was highlighted when about 2,000 security personnel were sent to 500 kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools in the middle of May, following five attacks against students in other cities during the previous two months.

Yin Cheng, manager of the Beijing Jinwei Security Service Ltd, said his company, which has been training and supplying security personnel for more than 10 years, would receive at least 30 applicants every month before 2008. Last year, they received about 10 applications each month.

"This year, we received only about three applicants each month," Yin said. "It is very hard to recruit enough people to work as security guards in Beijing."

Yin said that despite the wages of security guards being increased from 500 yuan per month to 1,200 yuan per month in the past three years, fewer young men in Beijing want to join.

"Parents of the men born in 1990s don't want their children to work too hard," he said.

"However, the number of our clients has increased 20 percent in the past two years."

Five years ago, many guards in the capital used to come from Henan and Shandong provinces, but now Yin can only recruit men from less developed areas of West China or from poorer counties in Hebei province.

"There is a large labor shortage in South China, too, and young people can find jobs with better wages there," Yin said.

"The young generation doesn't want to be far from their home. If a young man can find a job near home, he won't consider coming to Beijing."

Many people don't want to do the job since most security guards do basic work such as doorkeepers, which sounds "quite boring", Yin said.

He said Beijing upgraded its public security levels when events such as the Beijing Olympics and the celebration for the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China generated larger demands for personnel.

Requirements for guards have been relaxed. Three years ago, only men without criminal records, were taller than 170 cm and aged 18-30 were accepted for training.

"Today, as long as he doesn't have a criminal record, we will give him a chance," Yin said.

Lu Jianxin, 22, a public security student who will graduate from a college in Fangshan district in July, said he has never thought of being a security guard, even though he used to intern in a police station as a security guard.

"Most security guards I know say their 900-yuan salary is too low," Lu said. "And they would get the work the police don't want to do."