The sound of peddlers hawking their wares in heavily accented Chinese, accompanied by the tinkling sounds of tin hitting plates, is starting to fade away in contemporary Chinese communities. Tinkers are not as frequently seen wandering throughout worn-out alleyways.

"It won't take me long to give up grinding kitchen knives," said an aging tinker. Knife sharpening skills are not as necessary as before in modern daily life because many Chinese families have started to use knives made of stainless steels.

Ancient trades: tinkers, shoe menders and typesetter have now been excluded from China's Grand Classification of Occupations issued by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MOLSS), according to a recent report from the People's Daily. Shoe designers, exhibition planners and heath care consultants have replaced their job categories.

These updated occupations reflect the modern service industry in China, said Xie Kang, a professor from the School of Business at Sun Yat-sen University. "We will continue to list more occupations with high technological or intellectual values in the service industries catalogued by the ministry," stated Liu Yongpeng, an official from the Occupational Skill Testing Authority of MOLSS.

China has updated dozens of occupations each year since 2004. The country sets up training centers and launches standard testing to foster professional workers. To date there have been 1,989 occupations recorded by the MOLSS. This figure is expected to reach 2000 in the near future.

But problems have emerged from the dramatic change of occupations. People enroll in various training centers seeking bright future careers despite their majors and personal interests. "I do not want to be an Internet Technology expert in the future. I am just enrolling in the training to get the certificate; it may make it easier for me to get a job," said Jiang Ning, a university junior majoring in the arts. Jiang is enrolled in a Microsoft training class in order to obtain an IT certificate.

Certificates are precious commodities in China's current human resource market, where job hunters far outstrip vacancies. Some people even take advantage of legal loopholes to launch unqualified training programs.

"That's a serious problem and those people are just irresponsible," said Tao Chunfang, deputy director from the Research Center of Chinese Marriage and Family. "Take marriage and family consultants for example. That is a serious career. But some training centers use unqualified materials to teach people; this can cause serious social problems," explained Tao.

Experts believe that the country should keep the pace and design individual standards for all of its existing occupations in order to accurately regulate the market.

New Occupations Listed by MOLSS from 2004 to 2007

August 19, 2004: fashion designer, locksmith, call center staff, aquatic mammal zookeeper, auto factory worker, aquatic breeding specialist, gas station attendant, master butcher, jewelry designer.

December 15, 2004: cartoon artist, landscape designer, veterinarian nurse, architect, exhibition designer, digital video producer, commercial designer, business planner, customer service manager, furniture designer.

March 31, 2005: credit manager, website editor, real estate planner, career analyst, toy designer, market/commodities analyst, corporate culture consultant, commercial textile designer, hydroelectric generator operator, senior building manager.

October 25, 2005: healthcare provider, nutritionist, masseuse, small animal/large animal veterinarian, emergency medical technician (EMT), software tester, quality control supervisor of aquatic products, agricultural technical consultant, laser pickup maker, small wind farm operator, paramedic.

December 12, 2005: master of ceremonies, aquatic ecologist, indoor ecologist, neon light maker, layout artist/graphic artist, integrated circuit tester, florist, digital composer, multi-media based course designer, digital video editor.

April 29, 2006: sports announcer, perfumer, coffee chef, investigation analyst, candy chef, leather designer, porcelain potter, fertilizer chemist, porcelain artist, security design evaluator, lighting engineer, specialty chemist for wood antiseptics, digital machine engineer.

September 21, 2006: systems programmer, tire mechanic, branch manager, medical equipment manager, seed processor, customs clearance agent, airport commander, public culture instructor, pet trainer, real estate agent, wine maker, shoe designer.

January 29, 2007: exhibition designer, jewelry appraiser, business consultant, sign language interpreter, disaster reporter, caretaker for orphans and handicapped children, light rail transport specialty mechanic, digital control system programmer, synthetic material tester, indoor decorator quality control.

April 25, 2007: weights and balances technician, auto glass mechanic, machine mechanic, security system' mechanic, audio-phones tester, soybean chef, cosmetic chemist, textile designer, sexual health consultant, marriage consultant.

(China.org.cn by Wu Jin, September 10, 2007)