How to become a Tobacco Smoke Tester
Official Chinese title (2022 occupational classification): 烟草评吸师
Judges the quality of tobacco leaf and cigarettes by sight, smell, taste and analysis.
Main tasks
- Planning smoke tests, adjusting room temperature and humidity and preparing the space and standard samples
- Taking samples of raw leaf, reconstituted tobacco, redried leaf, cut stem and flavourings with samplers, conditioning boxes and cutters and conditioning them for testing
- Smoking leaf samples, telling apart type, aroma style and leaf position and judging sensory quality and style
- Smoking cigarette samples, telling apart types and product differences and judging sensory quality, mouthfeel and style
- Recording results, analysing data and writing and reviewing test reports
- Designing leaf blends and mixing flavourings
- Suggesting ways to improve processes and quality
AI and this job
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Who does this work
- The census group Tobacco Products Processing Workers holds 0.02% of everyone employed in China; 39.8% of its workers are women (2020 Census).
- 24% are under 35, 62.1% are 35 to 54 and 13.9% are 55 or older. The middle age band is 45 to 49.
- Census figures for the whole mid group (2020 long-form sample), not for this job alone.
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Questions people ask
Will AI change the work of a Tobacco Smoke Tester?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- National Bureau of Statistics of China: China Population Census Yearbook 2020, long-form tables 4-6 and 4-7 (employed by occupation mid group, sex, age) (2020 Census long form (10% sample)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
Sources: Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China (2022 edition, public consultation draft), Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, State Administration for Market Regulation and National Bureau of Statistics; Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 2025 enterprise pay survey information; Guangzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, 2025 labour market wage prices; National Bureau of Statistics of China (www.stats.gov.cn), 2020 Population Census yearbook; Ministry of Education, vocational education major profiles (2022 revision) and undergraduate major catalogue (2025); Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, national vocational qualifications catalogue (2021); O*NET interest scores (CC BY 4.0); ILO global generative AI exposure index (CC BY 4.0). Figures processed by Peernovo. English text, translations and the matching of occupations to ISCO-08, majors, degree fields and qualifications by Peernovo.
Descriptions and tasks are Peernovo's own words, written from the facts in the Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China (2022 edition). Job titles and work types are the classification's own.
Updated 4 October 2026