Out With Wok Repairmen, In With Baristas
A few times a year, China’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security updates the government’s official list of nationally-recognized occupations. As China’s economy transforms itself from rural to manufacturing-based, jobs that were once essential in the old China are no longer necessary. This month, the job of wok repairman was stricken from the official government list. Likewise, in today’s China, many jobs are now necessary that never were before, mostly in the service industry. The occupation of barista (or what people outside of Europe or a Starbucks call “someone who works at Starbucks”) was added to the list this month. As coffee culture has taken hold in Shanghai, the need for qualified baristas has never been greater. Other occupations added to the government list are career consultants, beef graders and jewelry evaluators. As for the wok repairmen– they were a casualty of the stainless steel Chinese cookware revolution. Unlike the old iron frying pans that were always breaking down and made you have to always call the wok repair guy, with the new steel woks, there’s no more wear and tear and forget about that hard-to-clean greasy residue. With the 10 new jobs added to the Ministry’s list this month, there are now 1,979 officially recognized professions in China.
•USA Today: China Says Hello Baristas, So Long Wok Repairmen