China will run what its labour ministry calls an action to promote employment in adapting to AI development (our translation), vice minister of human resources and social security Li Zhong said at a State Council Information Office press conference on Saturday 10 October 2026. According to the transcript, he said China would actively respond to the impact of AI and other new technologies on employment.
It is one of five actions the ministry set out for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, 2026 to 2030. The ministry also plans a regular mechanism for identifying new occupations in AI and other emerging fields, and more than 200 new or revised national occupational standards over the period.
Business Pill · BUNDLE OF TASKS
A one-minute explainer of the idea that a job is a bundle of many small tasks, which is why technology changes some tasks before whole jobs. It teaches the general idea only and says nothing about any person or organisation in this story.
The key insight: As we read it, the notable part is not a single programme but a change of cadence. China already names new occupations, 72 of them in the last five-year period, but Wu Liduo said the ministry will now collect and announce them through a regular mechanism, listing AI first among the emerging fields it will watch, alongside more than 200 new or revised national standards.
According to the transcript, Li Zhong summed up the ministry’s employment plan as one goal, three priorities and two safeguards. The goal is high-quality, full employment. Under it, he said, the ministry would strengthen assessments of how major policies, projects and the siting of productive capacity affect jobs, and would implement the AI employment action.
In his opening remarks he listed the measures as two plans, five actions and mechanisms in four areas. The two plans cover young people such as university graduates, and the quality of jobs for flexible and new-form workers. The five actions are the AI employment action, a skills-training action, a migrant-worker employment action, an action on public employment services and an action on human-resources services.
He also said rules protecting the rights of workers in new forms of employment had been put out for public comment two days before the briefing.
The five employment actions China’s labour ministry set out for 2026 to 2030 at the State Council Information Office press conference of 10 October 2026; highlighted, the action to promote employment in adapting to AI development. Short labels are our translations.
AI Skills for Everyone
Answering a question on training, Li Zhong said the ministry would run what translates as an AI technical skills for everyone action (our translation). Per the transcript, it means general AI education for all workers, training digital engineers for specific jobs, and AI-related training for students.
He gave the targets for the period: about 10 million person-times of subsidised vocational training each year, and 40 million new skill certificates over five years, of which 14 million at senior-worker level or above.
The skills targets vice minister Li Zhong gave for 2026 to 2030 at the State Council Information Office press conference of 10 October 2026, in millions: subsidised training is per year, certificates over five years. Source: briefing transcript; translation ours.
New Occupations, Including AI Trainers
Wu Liduo, director of the ministry’s vocational capacity building department, said China added 72 new occupations and close to 100 new job types to its national classification during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, including AI trainers and carbon emissions managers. This year, he said, the ministry and other departments have announced 11 more occupations and 23 new job types, and issued 56 national occupational standards.
Next, he said, the ministry would set up a regular mechanism to collect and announce new occupations, watching AI, the digital economy, green and low-carbon fields and modern services. It plans to draw up or revise more than 200 national occupational standards during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
The Jobs Backdrop
Li Zhong said China created 10.52 million new urban jobs in the first nine months of 2026, 87.7% of the year’s target, and that the surveyed urban unemployment rate averaged 5.2% in the first eight months. Over the 14th Five-Year Plan period, he said, new urban jobs totalled more than 62 million.
The gov.cn report of the briefing adds figures that do not appear in the briefing transcript. It says new AI-related job postings in the new economy on the recruitment platform Maimai rose 789.47% year on year from January to July, and that China’s core AI industry has exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan in scale, with more than 6,200 enterprises.
The Structural Read
Li Zhong set the AI action inside a wider employment plan, as the transcript records it: two plans, five actions and mechanisms in four areas, under a goal of high-quality, full employment.
The AI-specific pieces are three. The ministry named an action to promote employment in adapting to AI development, an AI skills for everyone training action, and a regular mechanism for naming new occupations in AI and other new fields (our translations).
As we read it, the targets attached are on the training side: about 10 million person-times of subsidised training a year and 40 million new skill certificates over five years. Li Zhong gave no separate budget or target for the AI action itself in the transcript we read.
gov.cn report of the State Council Information Office briefing (10 October 2026)
“Li Zhong, vice minister of human resources and social security, said at a press conference that China would actively address the impact of AI and other emerging technologies on employment, promoting the responsible development of technology and bolstering quality employment.”
Three Implications
EMPLOYERS IN CHINA The ministry said it would strengthen assessments of how major policies, projects and the siting of productive capacity affect employment, and run an AI skills drive for all workers.
TRAINING PROVIDERS Li Zhong said the ministry aims for about 10 million person-times of subsidised training a year and 40 million new skill certificates over five years, 14 million of them senior worker or above.
WORKERS IN NEW JOBS Wu Liduo said the ministry will name new occupations through a regular mechanism and draw up or revise more than 200 national occupational standards by 2030.
The framework puts it this way: “Model capability now compounds on a six-to-twelve-month doubling cycle.” It adds: “The product capability built around those models has not, and structurally cannot, move at the same pace.”
As we read it, an occupational classification is the workforce version of that slower layer: China’s answer, per Wu Liduo, is to name new occupations through a regular mechanism rather than in periodic batches.
What Is Not Established
In the transcript we read, Li Zhong named the AI employment action but did not set out its specific measures, budget or timetable, or say how the impact of AI on jobs would be measured. The figure of more than 200 occupational standards covers all fields, not AI alone. The Maimai and AI-industry figures appear in the gov.cn report, not in the briefing transcript. Translations from the Chinese transcript are ours.
Business Engineer Framework
The Product Overhang Doctrine
A Business Engineer framework on the gap between how fast model capability compounds and how fast what is built around it can move.
China’s labour ministry has put an AI employment action into its 2026 to 2030 plan, alongside an AI skills drive for all workers. It also plans a standing process for naming new occupations in AI and other new fields. Li Zhong presented it against 10.52 million new urban jobs in the first nine months of 2026, 87.7% of the annual target.
A note on sourcing. On 12 October 2026 we read in full the live-text transcript of the State Council Information Office press conference of 10 October 2026, linked from the website of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the ministry’s own report of it, and the English report published on gov.cn. Statements from the Chinese transcript are our translations. The Maimai and AI-industry figures come from the gov.cn report. Nothing here is a forecast or investment advice.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur, HackerNoon and Search Engine People. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
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