Zhai Tiantian - Back In China
A Respectable Profession

China’s large number of skilled university graduates is competing for a smaller pool of jobs. So some are turning to other professions outside their expertise. Andrew Livingstone reports on a group of graduates taking up a radically different type of work.

Now what's your image of a Private Eye or detective? The very English Sherlock Holmes, or perhaps the American Philip Marlowe, maybe Belgium's Hercule Poirot - or even Chinese American Charlie Chan? But these fictional characters all come from a different age. What about in today's modern China. Well recently the profession was under the spotlight when two private detectives were accused in Beijing court of illegally obtaining personal information. But is it even a profession? In China there is no legal definition for a private detective so they then to operate in a grey area. And the fact that much of their work involves spying on errant wives or husbands does nothing for their reputation. So what do ordinary Chinese people think of today's private detectives? Our researcher Aaron Peng went out on the streets of Beijing to find out. 

The financial crisis has left many without jobs all over the world. But here in China, there are a few encouraging signs. A recent report says China exceeded its 2009 employment target well before the end of the year.

State media has announced some 9 point 4 million jobs were created in China during the first ten months of this year. That surpassed the government's goal of nine million for the entire year.

The unemployment rate rose from slightly to 4.3 percent in the first quarter of this year due to the financial crisis. And a drop in export sales forced many factories to slash production or close their businesses, leaving about 23 million migrant workers without jobs.

Since the days of Florence Nightingale to the latter half of the last century the profession of nursing in the western world was almost exclusively the preserve of women. And in China today, that is still very much the case.

While China may be well known for skill of its ping pong players, pers and gymnasts - it's not exactly famous for producing soccer talent.

But some of the nation's educators want to change that. A new initiative hopes to train the next generation of Chinese soccer stars for success on the world's biggest sporting stage.

BON's Andrew Livingstone has the story.