Big boost to domestic service sector

China will encourage more people to serve in the domestic services sectors by improving the evaluation and payment systems for workers, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

China so far has over 30 million people serving the domestic services industry at about 1 million companies, the ministry said. However, the workers are still in short supply due to people's increasing demands for baby care and elderly nursing, and the workers themselves also face problems of "being unprofessional".

Earlier in June, the ministry, together with other six central departments such as the Ministry of Education and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, released a State-level guideline, aiming a better development of the industry by standardizing the workers' evaluation and management, and organizing more skills competition to sharpen their working abilities and professionalism.

Wu Houde, an official from the human resources ministry, said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday that based on the guideline, the ministry will develop more training courses and build up training bases to produce more qualified workers in the domestic services sector.

"We will support more domestic services companies to build up their own brands, while tightening the supervision on them to urge a fairer and reasonable payment system for their employees. We encourage social organizations, mediation agencies and legal assistance institutes to protect domestic services worker's rights," he said.

He added that the ministry will encourage more people to land jobs or start their businesses in the domestic services sector by offering them some feasible policies. "Also, we will organize more skills competitions for domestic services workers to let them get stronger sense of honors and identity to the profession," Wu added.