In a difficult job market, more Chinese workers learn to fly drones

Straits Times

2 days ago

Mr Huang Kunlin, 28, who used to work in the IT department of a large vape maker, hopes to get his drone operator's licence. ST PHOTO: JOYCE ZK LIM
- 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 of 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 paddy fields, and put out fires in hard-to-reach forests and buildings.
Mr Xu Hui (in green), who is training to become a drone pilot, steers a drone via remote control at a flight class in Shenzhen. It task involves controlling the drone's elevation and direction using two different joysticks.
ST PHOTO: JOYCE ZK LIM
Meituan , a leading food delivery platform, sends food and drink via drones to more than 50 collection points in major cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing , including one at the Great Wall.
The number of drones is expected to grow further as the commercial adoption of drones expands. The market for commercial drones is projected to grow around 19.5 per cent each year for the next five years, to reach about 300 billion yuan by 2029, up from about 121.5 billion yuan in 2024, according to a report released in May by EO Intelligence, the research arm of Chinese information service provider EqualOcean .
With this rise in the use of drones comes a growing demand and reasonably attractive salaries for people who can fly them, a skill in short supply. China lacks some one million drone operators, a senior official said in October 2024. The country had about 225,000 licensed drone pilots as of June that year.
Mr Xu Hui, 28, who used to sell women's clothing in the highly-competitive live-stream industry, decided to pivot into drones after learning that the sector had a shortage of skilled workers.
ST PHOTO: JOYCE ZK LIM
In a recent job advertisement, logistics giant JD.com offered licensed drone pilots with at least one year's experience a monthly salary of between 7,000 and 12,000 yuan (between S$1,254 and S$2,150). This is higher than the country's average private sector salary of about 5,800 yuan per month in urban areas, according to figures for 2024 from the statistics bureau.
The prospect of being early movers in a burgeoning industry is attracting a growing number of Chinese workers, for whom drone-related jobs would barely have existed when they graduated from school.
It was only in 2019 that the Chinese government officially recognised drone pilots as an occupation. Other drone-related jobs have been acknowledged since, most recently that of 'drone swarm flight planners' in May.
Joining Mr Xu, the former live-stream worker, at his drone-flying class was a group of 20-somethings with diverse backgrounds such as IT and manufacturing. They described being keen to escape their industries' stiff competition, colloquially termed juan, that has led to late nights and depressed wages.
Mr Huang Kunlin, 28, who most recently worked in the IT department of a large vape maker, said his monthly salary had more than halved after six years in the industry, from a high of almost 20,000 yuan to between 7,000 and 8,000 yuan.
With an 'over-saturation' of people who can do the job, the IT sector has become 'way too competitive', he said. Faced with limited prospects for advancement, he decided to go into the drone industry, which he believes will give him more work options as the devices become more widely adopted in China.
Mr Huang hopes to get his drone operator's licence and then secure a job managing a drone delivery station, which he says pays about 8,000 yuan a month before bonuses.
There are also ample opportunities to start his own business down the line, he said. He could buy a drone to deliver goods to and from rural areas that are difficult to access, or even sell drone-related services in croplands overseas, he added.
Ms Victoria Li, a 26-year-old nurse, is mulling a move into the drone sector and away from what she saw as a dead-end job with few opportunities to grow.
'I want to go into an up-and-coming industry,' she declared, while checking out the flying lesson that Mr Huang was taking and deciding on her next steps.
The flying class that the young Chinese were at is one of many run by Tuopu Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Training Base , a Shenzhen-based company. The firm has seen a surge of interest in its drone lessons, which prepare students to sit a test for a drone operators' licence issued by China's aviation authority, said operations manager Lin Kaibin.
Mr Lin Kaibin (centre), operations manager at Tuopu Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Training Base, flanked by two students. His firm has seen a surge of interest in its drone-flying lessons.
ST PHOTO: JOYCE ZK LIM
In 2024, the company trained about 160 students who went on to receive their licences, he said. In just the first five months of 2025, that number has reached 280.
To cater to this rising interest, the company is expanding its training grounds from three to five this year, Mr Lin added. Fees for its 15- to 20-day commercial drone operator courses start from 6,800 yuan.
Private operators such as Tuopu which provide drone-flying courses are mushrooming in China. Some driving schools have also branched into offering drone lessons, to capitalise on the rise in demand.
The country currently has more than 2,500 drone training institutions, according to a list of these schools maintained by China's aviation authority. This is up from some 1,000 institutions in August 2024, local media reported.
Universities and vocational schools in China, too, have been providing more drone-related courses to churn out talent with specialised knowledge in unmanned aerial vehicles.
In 2025 , six universities added new programmes in low-altitude technology and engineering to their course offerings. The country has also been overhauling its system of vocational education in recent years, rolling out more majors and courses in emerging industries such as drone technology and artificial intelligence.
China's aviation authority has also set aside almost five million yuan in its budget in 2025 to train talent in the low-altitude economy.
New jobs generated by these high-tech sectors are a bright spot in a labour market that is otherwise shaping up to be one of China's most difficult in years. A record number of college graduates, more than 12 million in 2025, are searching for work as trade tensions threaten manufacturing jobs and give firms the jitters.
Drone-related jobs will be useful in relieving some of the country's employment pressures, said labour economist Liu Erduo of Renmin University in Beijing, even though they will not be able to help everyone.
Older workers, for instance, are likely unsuited to become drone pilots. 'Your hands must be fast and agile,' Dr Liu said of the job which involves manipulating two joysticks to control the drones' elevation and direction.
Nonetheless, the move by workers to upskill themselves in this sector will help alleviate, to some degree, the structural unemployment afflicting the Chinese economy. Many universities in China have an 'oversupply' of majors in the arts and social sciences, Dr Liu said.
'There really aren't that many jobs in law, finance, history or literature,' he said. 'In future, (more of these graduates) may have to study for a second career, and learn new skills.'
Joyce ZK Lim is The Straits Times' China correspondent, based in Shenzhen.
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