Job seekers turning to niche jobs fueled by growing penchant for personalized services

Zhang Lei has a bachelor's degree in architecture, but he is yet to design a building. Instead, as part of his job, he visits newly decorated apartments to inspect the heating systems, gas pipes, sewage systems, window glasses and even the air quality in rooms.

Zhang says that he is not an interior designer or a sanitary inspector, but a property condition inspector at Home-brains, a leading property inspection company in China.

His job is not something that one finds being advertised frequently on job boards or newspapers. Rather they are part of the growing number of odd or niche jobs springing up, thanks to the diverse economy and growing purchasing power.

"It's like a physical examination of the house," says Zhang. His inspections cover nearly 300 aspects, and he can earn as much as 1,000 yuan (108 euros) for a 100 square meter apartment. For conducting an air quality test, he gets paid an extra 400 yuan.

Demand for professionals like Zhang has risen sharply thanks to the housing boom. But that was not the case in 2007 when he entered the industry as a fresh graduate.

"I did not want to take the usual steps and decided to follow a different path," says Zhang.

But it was not an easy journey, as in 2007 Zhang's company conducted only 10 apartment visits every month. During the last two years demand for such services has risen sharply and the company currently undertakes nearly 200 visits every month.

"People are paying more attention to their living conditions, and are not averse to spending more money to ensure that their new homes are safe and comfortable," Zhang says.

New professions are blossoming in China as the traditional job market is getting increasingly saturated. Job seekers are now turning to niche jobs fuelled by the growing penchant for personalized services. Demand for personal and luxury services, skills training and a host of other sectors are also galloping in tandem with China's strong economic growth.

In 2004, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security came out with a list of nine new professions approved by the Occupational Skill Testing Authority Center (OSTAC) affiliated to it. Between 2004 and 2010, the ministry added 11 batches of new jobs, taking the total to 122.

Most of these jobs like locker repairer, jewelry designer and call attendant do not sound strange now, but were perceived as exotic back then.

The OSTAC says that its new job ranking is arrived after measuring certain parameters. The job should require unique skills, be legal, full-time in nature, and have more than 5,000 practitioners in China, it says.

Experts, however, maintain that there has been a sharp rise in the number of niche and new jobs. By current estimates the number of such jobs is at least 10 or 20 times the figure estimated by the ministry, they say.