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New jobs are on offer. And there are 1.8 million of them.

As part of a government plan, 2 million qualified social workers will be employed on the mainland by the end of 2015, said a Ministry of Civil Affairs official on Tuesday.

To ensure that happens, the government intends to salary guidelines and other motivation policies.

"China lacks the number of social workers it must have to meet the public's increasing needs," said Huang Shengwei, chief of the ministry's first social work division. "And currently, most social workers have not received professional training."

Incomplete statistics from the ministry show that there are about 200,000 social workers in the Chinese mainland. Of those, only about a quarter have passed the exams to be licensed to do social work.

Most social workers are concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities, while vast rural expanses, especially those in the country's center and west, are home to hardly anyone in that line of work, Huang said at a news conference in Beijing.

Every year, 250 higher educational institutions in China graduate about 10,000 students who majored in social work. In 2006, nearly 60 percent chose to work in other occupations, although fewer are making the same decision every year, Huang said, citing surveys conducted by the Ministry of Education.

Social workers' low incomes and the lack of promotion opportunities are the causes of many graduates' decision to pursue other careers.

"I earn about 2,000 yuan ($316) a month, so I still have to turn to my parents for money to pay for my living expenses," said Peng Bin, who has been a social worker for 15 months in the Haidian district of Beijing.

"There is little chance to get promoted and you probably can work your whole life as a social worker without making much progress in your career," the 26-year-old woman said.

Ellen Friedman, a visiting scholar who taught social work at Sun Yat-sen University from 2006 to 2010, said "very few" of her students who majored in social work end up working as social workers.

"Many students told me that their parents did not support their idea to be social workers," Friedman said.

She said parents are often concerned because social work is still a new field in China, one that is not well known to the public.

Friedman said the salary for social workers in Guangdong province is "going up steadily," since many nongovernmental organizations find it difficult to employ the number of talented workers that they need.

Being a social worker in Guangdong can now give a graduate with a bachelor's degree a monthly income of 3,500 yuan, Friedman said.

Questions:

1. How many new social workers will get jobs in China?

2. How many social workers are there in China now?

3. How much can social workers expect to make?

Answers:

1. 1.8 million.

2. Incomplete statistics from the ministry show that there are about 200,000 social workers in the Chinese mainland.

3. About 2,000 yuan ($316) a month.

（中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.