Drones offer a lifeline amid tight labour market in China

More workers learn to fly such aircraft as demand soars with growing commercial adoption

- Joyce ZK Lim

SHENZHEN - Mr Xu Hui, who used to sell women's clothing online, has grown tired of the long hours and cut-throat competition plaguing the live-stream business.

So for the past month, the 28-year-old has trained almost every day for what he hopes will be his next career: a drone operator.

At a quiet football field on a weekday afternoon, he and six classmates at a private flying school take turns steering a drone, the size of a nightstand, in figures of eight above mini traffic cones.

They are preparing for a test to get a licence to pilot drones transporting anything from bubble tea to medical supplies by air - an increasingly familiar sight in China as it develops this emerging segment of its economy.

"In a way, I am responding to the needs of this era," said Mr Xu, who decided to pivot to the state-supported drone sector after learning that it had a shortage of skilled workers. He had no prior knowledge of drones, having studied international trade and Chinese literature in school.

He is among a growing number of Chinese workers who, faced with a difficult labour market, are chasing new job opportunities born of Beijing's push for high-tech industries to transform its economy.

China is stepping up the development of what it calls the "low-altitude economy", which refers to having more business and industrial activity take place in low-altitude airspace.

More unmanned aerial vehicles have in recent years plied the skies of the world's largest drone-maker. China had 2.177 million registered drones as at end-2024, official figures showed, up 98.5 per cent from the year before.

They deliver packages without being caught in traffic jams, spray pesticides across vast padi fields, and put out fires in hard-to-reach forests and buildings.