State Council General Office issues opinions, deploying 18 tasks across 6 areas to address the employment impact of artificial intelligence

On October 23, according to the Chinese government website, the General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Opinions on Adapting to the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technology to Help Build an Employment-Friendly Development Model" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which deploys 18 major tasks in 6 areas.

First, strengthen the employment creation effect of artificial intelligence. Expand new space for AI employment in emerging fields, cultivate new momentum for small and medium-sized enterprises to stabilize and expand jobs, create new models of employment and entrepreneurship in the AI field, and accelerate the development of new occupations in the AI field.

Second, build an employment-friendly AI upgrading path. Tap the employment potential of AI in traditional fields, mitigate the employment substitution impact of AI application, and establish an employment risk assessment mechanism for AI application.

Third, improve workers' digital literacy and employability. Collaboratively cultivate AI innovative talents and implement a special AI training plan.

Fourth, promote AI-enabled high-quality employment policy services. Use AI to help implement employment policies, improve the intelligent level of employment services, and increase support for transition and job transfer employment.

Fifth, improve the worker rights protection system and social security system. Optimize the worker rights protection system adapted to human-machine collaboration, improve the social security system for flexible employment and workers in new forms of employment, and improve the income distribution mechanism adapted to the development of AI technology.

Sixth, improve the employment monitoring, early warning and risk response system for AI application. Strengthen monitoring and early warning of employment risks from AI application, strengthen research on the employment impact of AI application, and improve the employment risk response mechanism for AI application.

To the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, all ministries and commissions of the State Council, and all institutions directly under the State Council:

Employment is the most basic livelihood issue. In order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on promoting high-quality full employment, actively adapt to the development of AI technology, and help build an employment-friendly development model, with the approval of the State Council, the following opinions are hereby put forward.

I. Overall requirements

Adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the successive plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, adhere to the close integration of investment in physical assets and investment in people, adhere to the coordination of development and security, adhere to the employment-first orientation, take AI-enabled high-quality development as an opportunity, take adapting to technological development to promote high-quality full employment as the goal, take building an employment-friendly development model as the direction, actively enhance the positive effects of AI in creating employment opportunities, empowering traditional positions, improving employment quality, and stimulating entrepreneurial vitality, effectively mitigate the employment substitution impact of AI application, and strive to achieve inclusive development in which technological progress, industrial upgrading, employment promotion, and livelihood improvement are coordinated.

II. Strengthen the employment creation effect of artificial intelligence

(1) Expand new space for AI employment in emerging fields. Deeply implement the "AI+" action, encourage the eastern region to lay out core AI industries, guide the central and western regions to undertake upstream and downstream industries such as data annotation and intelligent terminal manufacturing according to local conditions, and accelerate the formation of new employment growth points in the AI field. Accelerate the cultivation of AI-native enterprises and specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative "little giant" enterprises, include eligible enterprises in the scope of special loan support for financial assistance to enterprises to stabilize and expand jobs in accordance with regulations, and create more new jobs and new opportunities.

(2) Cultivate new momentum for small and medium-sized enterprises to stabilize and expand jobs. Implement the AI SME entrepreneurship support plan and use the open-source ecosystem to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among small and medium-sized enterprises. Strengthen the supply of public services for digital transformation, encourage the development of "small, fast, light and precise" digital products and solutions, ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households can use intelligent production factors such as data and algorithms equally in accordance with the law, support small and medium-sized enterprises in exploring low-cost and lightweight intelligent upgrading paths, further lower the threshold for AI application, and enhance their capacity to absorb employment.

(3) Create new models of employment and entrepreneurship in the AI field. Give full play to the role of government investment funds such as the National Venture Capital Guidance Fund and the National AI Industry Investment Fund, and support the innovative development of enterprises in the AI field in a market-oriented manner. Build high-level AI open-source communities, deploy and implement a batch of high-quality open-source projects, and form an effect in which entrepreneurship drives employment. Promote models of "scientific and technological achievements + entrepreneurship", "industrial development + entrepreneurship", "vocational skills + entrepreneurship", and "livelihood needs + entrepreneurship"; around entrepreneurial projects such as AI application scenario innovation and transformation of technological achievements, implement entrepreneurship support policies and provide entrepreneurship incubation services.

(4) Accelerate the development of new occupations in the AI field. Around the cultivation of AI scenarios and large-scale application, accelerate the development of new occupations and release new occupational standards, and expand demand for new occupations and new job types such as digital management professionals, AI engineering technicians, and AI trainers. Encourage localities to add relevant professional title evaluation specialties in light of the needs of AI industry development, and promptly carry out AI-related vocational skill level certification.

III. Build an employment-friendly AI upgrading path

(5) Tap the employment potential of AI in traditional fields. Give play to the role of AI in helping traditional industries transform and upgrade, guide the better implementation of human-machine collaboration models in the intelligent development of all factors of industry and the digital-intelligent transformation and upgrading of agriculture, and tap digital-intelligent employment opportunities in traditional fields. Accelerate the construction of AI-driven new service methods, advance the extension of producer services toward specialization and the high end of the value chain by field, promote the high-quality, diversified and convenient development of consumer services, expand new service consumption scenarios such as experiential consumption and personalized consumption, and expand the employment capacity of the service industry.

(6) Mitigate the employment substitution impact of AI application. Give play to the role of AI in improving the employment environment, raising occupational safety levels, and improving work quality and efficiency, and prioritize its promotion and application in positions with labor shortages and high environmental risks. Steadily and prudently grasp the scope, intensity and pace of AI application in labor-intensive industries to minimize the impact on workers. Encourage enterprises to explore the establishment of an unemployment buffer period system, and in the process of large-scale promotion and application of AI, inform affected workers in advance and provide support for transition and job transfer employment.

(7) Establish a mechanism for assessing the employment risk of AI applications. Comprehensively assess the impact of AI applications on employment, and guide innovation resources toward areas with greater potential for job creation. For AI application scenario projects in the market access field that may cause a relatively large employment shock, carry out employment risk assessments in tandem with review; relevant departments shall make coordinated efforts to provide support for job transition and reassignment. For AI application scenario projects in other fields, carry out employment risk assessments in light of actual conditions.

IV. Enhancing Workers' Digital Literacy and Employability

(8) Collaboratively cultivate AI innovative talent. Encourage regular higher education institutions and vocational schools (including technical colleges) to accelerate the dynamic optimization of academic discipline and major offerings, make extraordinary arrangements for disciplines and majors urgently needed in the AI field, strengthen the development of related interdisciplinary majors, increase the placement of AI "micro-majors," implement composite talent cultivation programs, and cultivate more composite AI talent. Strengthen university-enterprise joint training, and support leading science and technology enterprises in participating in course development, teacher training, and upgrading of teaching facilities. Solidly advance AI education across all stages of schooling, promote student internships in enterprises and enterprise engineers teaching on campus, and cultivate students' exploratory and creative thinking abilities.

(9) Implement a special AI training program. Deeply implement the "Skills Light Up the Future" training initiative. When local areas carry out project-based and order-based digital technology and skills training, they shall closely align with market demand in the AI field and encourage college graduates and other young people, migrant workers, unemployed persons, and others to participate in AI-field employment and entrepreneurship training programs. Encourage local areas to actively carry out AI-related skills training relying on public training bases, enterprise training bases, high-skilled talent training bases, and others. Advance AI general education for society as a whole, and relying on the National Smart Education Public Service Platform, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology technical and skilled talent online learning platform, continuing education online platforms, and others, launch more public-benefit courses. Encourage the active carrying out of AI-related skills competitions within existing vocational skills competitions.

V. Promoting AI-Empowered High-Quality Employment Policy Services

(10) Use AI to help implement employment policies. Explore building an intelligent identification mechanism for policy implementation, analyze the characteristics of service recipients, intelligently push employment policies, and improve the quality and effectiveness of "policies finding people." Strengthen the application of AI in employment policy evaluation, fund management, publicity and interpretation, and consultation.

(11) Improve the intelligent level of employment services. Upgrade and improve the national employment information resource database, the National College Student Employment Service Platform, and the "China Employment" public service platform, and strengthen data aggregation, intelligent analysis, and precision services. Advance the construction of national AI application pilot test bases, coordinate existing resources to explore the intelligent upgrading of grassroots public employment service networks, and deepen the application of AI in areas such as labor and personnel dispute mediation and arbitration. Promote AI empowerment of human resources services, and encourage business entities to innovate and optimize new products and new models such as large models for job seeking and recruitment, intelligent interviews, and virtual reality training.

(12) Increase support for job transition and reassignment. In accordance with regulations, provide employment assistance to workers who meet the conditions and are affected by job displacement due to AI applications, and provide targeted services such as career guidance, skills training, job referrals, and entrepreneurship support. In accordance with regulations, promptly and fully pay unemployment insurance benefits to relevant insured unemployed persons.

VI. Improving the Worker Rights Protection System and the Social Security System

(13) Optimize the worker rights protection system adapted to human-machine collaboration. Strengthen research on the protection of workers' basic rights in light of new characteristics of the social division of labor such as human-machine collaboration, improve consultation and coordination mechanisms for worker rights, and urge enterprises to protect workers' lawful rights and interests such as obtaining labor remuneration, rest and leave, and access to labor safety and health protection in accordance with the law. Regulate the application of AI in the field of human resources management, and govern in accordance with the law illegal and non-compliant acts such as employment discrimination, fraudulent recruitment, and infringement of privacy rights and rest rights caused by abuse of algorithms and the like.

(14) Improve the social security system for flexible employment and workers in new forms of employment. Adapt to the development of AI technology, enhance the flexibility and inclusiveness of the social security system, encourage and support flexible workers and workers in new forms of employment to participate in urban employee basic old-age insurance, and expand pilot programs for occupational injury protection for workers in new forms of employment. Actively make good use of the dividends of AI development to better safeguard employment and improve people's livelihoods.

(15) Improve the income distribution mechanism adapted to the development of AI technology. Guide enterprises to establish and improve compensation distribution systems suited to the characteristics of practitioners in the AI field, improve the wage distribution incentive mechanism for high-level talent oriented toward increasing the value of knowledge, and implement the classified reference guidelines for minimum wages for skilled talent. Cultivate and develop innovative work forms such as intelligent agents, encourage enterprises to increase investment in public-benefit AI technologies, services, and open-source communities, help workers expand the boundaries of their capabilities and enhance the value of their labor, and promote more workers to actively participate in technological progress and benefit from it.

VII. Improving the Employment Monitoring, Early Warning, and Risk Response System for AI Applications

(16) Strengthen monitoring and early warning of employment risks from AI applications. Strengthen cross-departmental sharing of data on AI-related industries, employment, and other areas, and jointly build regional and industry-specific intelligent monitoring and analysis models for employment data. Strengthen preliminary research and judgment of employment risks from AI applications, and improve the sensitivity of employment risk monitoring and early warning.

(17) Strengthen research on the employment impact of AI applications. Carry out special surveys on the employment impact of AI applications, and continuously track situations such as the penetration of AI applications, job creation and displacement, and changes in skills demand. Relying on existing resources such as universities and research institutions, establish a batch of AI employment research centers. Well implement national social science fund and other research projects, and conduct forward-looking research on the impact of AI technology development on employment and income distribution.

(18) Improve the response mechanism for employment risks from AI applications. Incorporate employment risks from AI applications into the scope of the mechanism for preventing and resolving large-scale unemployment risks, and make coordinated plans for risk response. Strengthen joint response to labor relations risks related to AI, and do a good job in risk consultation, judgment, and handling.

VIII. Strengthening Organization and Implementation

Persist in carrying the Party's leadership through every process and every aspect of the work of adapting to the development of AI technology to promote employment and entrepreneurship. All regions and relevant departments shall, in light of actual conditions, earnestly implement this Opinion, further strengthen the employment-first policy orientation, comprehensively consider the employment impact of AI applications, and accelerate the building of an employment-friendly development model. Human resources and social security departments and development and reform departments at all levels shall strengthen overall coordination, promote the effective implementation of various policy measures, strengthen publicity and guidance, and create a favorable social atmosphere conducive to promoting employment and entrepreneurship. Major matters shall be promptly requested and reported to the Party Central Committee and the State Council in accordance with procedures.

General Office of the State Council

October 16, 2026