State Council: Minimize AI's Impact on Workers in Labor-Intensive Industries

What happened

The document sets “employment first” as its guiding principle, aiming for inclusive development where technological progress, industrial upgrading, employment promotion and livelihood improvement move together. Its core ask is to slow AI's job-displacement effects: pace AI adoption in labor-intensive industries carefully in scope, intensity and speed; prioritize deployment in roles facing labor shortages or hazardous environments; build employment-risk assessment for AI applications and steer innovation resources toward job-creating areas.

The other side is job creation: implement the “AI Plus” initiative in depth, encourage eastern regions to host core AI industries, guide central and western regions to take on data annotation, smart-terminal manufacturing and adjacent work; deploy the national venture-capital guidance fund and the national AI industry investment fund to back AI firms via market mechanisms; build high-level AI open-source communities; accelerate new occupations — naming digital-management specialists, AI engineers and AI trainers.

It also covers worker rights and risk response: improve labor protections suited to human-machine collaboration, regulate AI use in HR management, and penalize algorithmic employment discrimination, fake job ads and violations of privacy and rest rights; extend social security to flexible and new-form employment; strengthen monitoring, early warning and forward-looking research on AI's employment risks. The document was reported and republished by multiple outlets including CE.cn, Securities Times, Cailian Press and Jiemian on Oct 23.

Key facts

1. Document: Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on adapting to AI for employment-friendly development, published via gov.cn on Oct 23
2. Scope: 6 areas, 18 key tasks; employment-first orientation, aiming for inclusive development pairing tech progress with job growth
3. Slowing displacement: carefully pace AI adoption in labor-intensive industries by scope, intensity and speed; prioritize labor-short and hazardous roles; build employment-risk assessment for AI applications
4. Creating jobs: deepen the “AI Plus” initiative; eastern regions host core AI industries while central/western regions take data annotation and smart-terminal manufacturing; state guidance funds back firms via market mechanisms
5. New occupations: accelerate AI-related new occupations, naming digital-management specialists, AI engineers and AI trainers
6. Rights and early warning: improve labor protections for human-machine collaboration; curb algorithmic hiring discrimination, fake ads and privacy/rest-rights violations; strengthen employment-risk monitoring