At the end of 2003, Shanghai's labor and social security department formally named the "grey collar" a brand new type of talent. "Gray Collar" is a type of talent with an independent smart structure and professional characteristics and will become a new focus in the workplace.
The relatively uniform view of the Shanghai Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau is that “gray collar†refers to a person with a high level of knowledge, a strong ability to innovate, and mastering skilled skills. Simply put, it is a combination of skilled personnel who can both brain and hands. The "gray collar" originally referred to the technical workers responsible for the maintenance of electrical appliances and machinery because they were mostly named after wearing grey uniforms. Now according to the industry and nature of the work, "gray collar" can be understood as the specialized skilled personnel who are engaged in high-skills operation, design or production management in the production line of the manufacturing enterprise and provide creative services in the service industry. The "gray collar" can be both organizationally designed and hands-on. At the same time, it must also have creative capabilities in product development and improvement. "Grey Collar" is not a transitional period from "Blue Collar" to "White Collar", not a lower class than "Blue Collar" or "White Collar", nor is it an average of "Blue Collar" and "White Collar." "Gray Collar" is a complex talent with high technical and knowledge levels.
The industries that are initially defined as "gray collar" include: printing design, animation design, game production, digital music production, information defense, mold design, intelligent building wiring, IT programs, exhibition design, advertising design, IC layout design, multimedia Production, CNC programming technology, mechanical measurement technology, video processing technology, motion capture technology, and more. Unlike the increasingly white-collar “white-collar workersâ€, the current demand gap for most “gray-collar workers†is very large. In the first "gray-collar" professional competition held in Shanghai, there were only 6 participants in digital music production, and many people in the motion capture profession had not even heard of it. There are only 6 sets of operation equipment for motion capture technology in the country, of which there are 3 sets in Shanghai and only 3 or 4 of the corresponding employees. Due to the scarcity of talent, the monthly salary of employees in the industry is more than 20,000 yuan.
In addition, occupations such as pilots, astronauts, surgeons, and reporters have also been classified as "gray collar" industries. With the economic development and the increasingly detailed social division of labor, the scope of the “gray collar†industry will continue to expand. In the future job market, it is obviously not enough to master the technology. Only by becoming a multi-faceted person with organizational capabilities, design capabilities, and operational capabilities, will it become a hot spot in the workplace.