The occupation of ferrite magnet manufacturing worker officially entered China's national new occupation catalog in 2025. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other departments listed it as part of the seventh batch of new occupations, establishing a promotion pathway from junior to senior levels and from skilled workers to engineers.
Hengdian Group East Magnetic Co., Ltd. in Dongyang, Zhejiang, provides a typical case. Jia Zhennan joined the company's soft magnet No. 8 factory after graduating from Sichuan University in August 2022. He recalled that workshops used to be dusty with many processes, and handling and inspection relied heavily on manual work. Now, automated guided vehicles deliver materials, robotic arms operate precisely, and AI equipment performs high-speed inspections.
Jia is mainly responsible for the automated optical inspection process. Previously, workers visually checked products, which was inefficient and prone to missed defects. Now, with AI inspection equipment, his job is to manage the equipment, adjust parameters, and handle exceptions — increasing efficiency by more than ten times and achieving more stable precision. He describes the shift: "There's less physical labor and more technical and mental work."
The new occupation provides a clear career path. With his bachelor's degree and frontline experience, Jia is preparing to apply for the title of assistant engineer. Xu Dalong, director of the company's inspection workshop, notes that an increasing number of young people with higher education are entering factories, becoming witnesses to and participants in the industry's transformation.
The frequency of technical problem-solving has increased. Last year, a high-end product faced cracking issues before mass production, affecting the schedule. As a technical backbone, Jia collaborated with senior workers to first manually identify crack features, then adjusted the automated optical inspection equipment by tweaking lighting angles, improving camera resolution, and optimizing AI recognition programs. They provided pinpoint feedback to the earlier processes to improve the pressing technique.
Orders from new energy and AI sectors demand very high quality, constantly testing workers' professional abilities. The company uses full-process rotation to systematically train ferrite magnet manufacturing workers, helping young people become familiar with the entire production line and develop into compound skilled talent.
The magnetic material industry is deeply connected to daily life and emerging industries — from refrigerator magnets and wireless chargers to new energy vehicles. Ferrite magnets are widely used for their abundant raw materials, low cost, and good high-frequency characteristics. China is the largest producer of this material. Driven by new energy and AI, the industry is becoming smarter and greener, with the professional skills of hundreds of thousands of industrial workers continuously improving.