(Yicai) Dec. 6 -- China's burgeoning class of 300 million senior citizens requires the country to draw up new career incentives as few choose to become caregivers.

Low professional status and the lack of career promotion channels are some of the important reasons why the eldercare industry does not attract jobseekers, Zhao Lei, president of Beijing's CAJ Training School for eldercare training, told Yicai.

This year, China is expected to have around 300 million or more citizens aged 60 or above, according to modeling based on data from the stats bureau. The year 1963 was the peak of births in the country's history with 29.8 million newborns.

A large proportion of the elderly between 65 and 75 years of age is disabled, which is far from healthy aging, bringing challenges to eldercare, said Lei Xiaoyan, director of the Center for Healthy Aging and Family Studies, Peking University.

In China, older people prefer staying at home as long as possible instead of moving to senior homes, according to national survey data. However, as families got smaller, these people's children are not likely to personally be able to take care of their parents, Lei said.

There are 4.1 million elderly people registered in Beijing, and almost all of them live on their own, said Shang Zhenkun, deputy director of the Beijing Eldercare Service Center. What these people need the most is personalized care and this is why the city is building a team of professional caregivers, Shang added.

However, the lack of qualified staff is apparent. As of last December, China had 387,000 eldercare facilities with a total of 8.3 million beds, which would require at least two million nurses, according to the national standard of one caregiver per four seniors. However, there are only 322,000 caregivers, with a gap of nearly 1.7 million.

China is issuing more policy support. In the 14th Five-Year Plan till 2025, the government proposed encouraging rural workforce and unemployed people in cities to work in eldercare. To that end, it suggested improving caregivers' salaries and social insurance while guiding educational institutions to intensify such training.

Editor: Shi Yi, Emmi Laine