China has stepped up efforts to boost the development of the domestic service industry, as demand for babysitters, caregivers, housekeepers and other workers is on the rise during the country's economic growth and demographic transition.
According to a guideline made public earlier this month, China will further develop consumer services to support high-quality economic development and meet people's demand for personalized, diversified and quality services.
One of the tasks set out by the guideline issued by the State Council is tapping the potential of consumption in domestic service sector.
In recent years, the maternal and infant and elderly care industries have undergone rapid development in China. Data from domestic service platforms show that in the first half of this year, the demand for elder caregivers and confinement nannies increased by between 15 and 20 percent compared to the same period of 2023.
"Especially this year, the demand is particularly high for babysitters and confinement nannies. Now our confinement nannies have been reserved until March next year. In addition, the demand for elderly care is also particularly high. This year, including our training, the overall (business) growth is about 120 percent compared to one year ago," said Sun Ziying, head of a domestic service company based in Zibo City, east China's Shandong Province.
At present, China has nearly 300 million citizens aged 60 or above, more than 32 million children under three years old and more than 80 million disabled people, driving up the demand for care services and constituting a trillion-yuan-level consumer market.
While the growing number of consumers has higher requirements and expectations for domestic service workers, most of the more than 30 million labor force who are currently available in the market have received limited education, and lack systematic and professional training.
To address the challenges facing the industry, Chinese officials said they will ramp up support for colleges and vocational schools to start domestic service-related majors and increase admissions. Efforts will also be made to deepen the cooperation between educational institutions and domestic service enterprises to equip students with the skills required by the labor market.
As China's major platform for lifelong and online education, the Open University of China
In a themed activity which was held at the Open University of China, the country's major platform for lifelong and online education, in Beijing on July 26, an official from China's top economic planner the National Development and Reform Commission elaborated on some of the NDRC's efforts to promote training programs for domestic service workers.
"We'll guide domestic service enterprises to establish a system offering comprehensive trainings for all of their employees before they take up a job, when they are fulfilling the work or they are assigned to other roles. We'll encourage eligible employee-based domestic service enterprises and leading enterprises in the industry to build a training system that adapts to their own development, to continuously strengthen the training of domestic service practitioners and high-end talents," said Liu Ming, director general of the Department of Social Affairs under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The Ministry of Commerce and the Open University of China had already signed an agreement to launch 840-hour free courses on an online platform for domestic service workers to learn. Additional 230-hour courses will also be put on the national domestic service information platform.
In addition to offering trainings to domestic service workers, the platform also serves as a database where consumers can search information about domestic service companies and their workers.
Since its launch, as of the end of June this year, the platform has gathered more than 16 million pieces of information of domestic service workers and nearly 20,000 domestic service companies, and received more than 210 million visits.
Also during the themed event in Open University of China, an official from the Ministry of Commerce said the ministry will move to improve the digital platform, amongst other measures to boost the development of the domestic service sector.
"In the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will further improve the national domestic service information platform, strengthen information sharing, expand the platform's user base, issue the 'domestic service convention', regulate all relevant parties' behaviors, in order to create a good environment for the industry's development," said Wang Bo, deputy director general of the Department of Trade in Services under the Ministry of Commerce.
China intensifies efforts to boost development of domestic service industry
