Zhong Mengsha has attracted around 10,000 followers within just two months of her foray in the livestreaming e-commerce business.

Zhong graduated from the Shanghai Polytechnic University this summer, majoring in design. Upon graduation, however, she found it challenging to secure a job in her academic field. Thus, she stepped into a new professional arena and took to livestreaming.

"Faced with tough job-hunting, I decided to try something new," Zhong said. "I've worked as a part-time fitness instructor for three years, so I'm good at promoting fitness and sports brands."

Now a promising online influencer, Zhong has a busy schedule, streaming up to 20 live shows in a month. Before each live streaming session, she devotes ample time to understand the brands and products, and strives to deliver the best output.

"It's not a mainstream for graduates to choose livestreaming as their careers yet. Undoubtedly, this industry is short of talent," said Zhong. "I plan to accumulate more experience in this industry and build my team in the future."

At a time when a record number of recent college graduates are looking for jobs, it has proved to be a highly difficult job-hunting year in China, and the impact of COVID-19 outbreak has made things even tougher. Opportunities, however, are arising from emerging industries such as livestreaming.

Despite lackluster performances of some traditional industries, new professions of thriving online businesses are adding new recruits for strong business growth.

China registered 8.74 million fresh college graduates in 2020, up 400,000 from last year, hitting a record high. The colossal number of graduates made competition at the job market even more fierce after the offline recruitment season was interrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak.

In the past few months, livestreaming e-commerce has become a buzzword for companies seeking to sell products online. According to a report by iiMedia Research, the number of users in China's livestreaming industry is expected to reach 526 million in 2020, and the market size would exceed 900 billion yuan (about 129 billion U.S. dollars).

Tang Jiansheng, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Consumer Council, believes that with the rapid development of the livestreaming industry, a certain number of jobs will be created.

"Livestreaming marketers are required to have good communication skills, professional knowledge and deep understanding of consumption scenarios, which offer good opportunities as well as experience for college graduates," Tang said.

With the rapid development of the livestreaming industry, young people with professional skills will land jobs in this field, said Hei Shui, a partner of Shanghai Heiyu E-commerce Co., Ltd., which broadcasts regular live shows for more than 10 brands.

In July, the company launched a livestreaming training program jointly with the Sichuan Business Vocational College, offering courses in livestreaming skills, equipment use, among others. As of now, more than 100 students have joined the program.

Livestreaming also helps revive traditional industries. Yuyuan Inc., which runs more than a dozen time-honored brands, started livestreaming to promote products online last year and attracted many young consumers. The company aims to recruit fresh graduates competent in livestreaming this year, said a corporate source.

Nine new professions, including online marketers and online learning consultants, were given official recognition by China's human resources authority in early July.

Apart from anchors, the livestreaming creates other job profiles such as project coordinators, online consultants and data analysts.

Livestreaming is part of the digital economy, and more college graduates should be encouraged to enter the field, said Liu Bo, deputy director-general of the Shanghai New Consumption Research Center.

"At present, it is necessary to strengthen the training of livestreaming talent, so as to fill the talent gap that might be brought about by the rapid development of the industry in the future," Liu said.