(Yicai) Oct. 27 -- China has brought out guidelines on adapting to the development of artificial intelligence to build an employment-friendly growth model, calling for the technology to be leveraged to create jobs, empower traditional roles, improve work quality, and boost entrepreneurial activity, while effectively easing worker displacement.

The new guidelines, made public on Oct. 23 by the General Office of the State Council, call for prioritizing the rollout of AI in sectors facing labor shortages or hazardous working conditions, while carefully managing the scope, pace, and intensity of its application in labor-intensive industries to minimize the impact on workers. Companies are also encouraged to give affected employees advance notice when deploying AI on a large scale and to support their transition to new roles.

To expand job opportunities, China calls for the in-depth implementation of the "AI Plus" initiative to accelerate the creation of new growth areas for employment in the AI sector. On workforce development, it encourages universities and vocational schools to optimize their academic offerings, expand "micro-majors" in AI, and roll out specialized AI training programs to help recent graduates, migrant workers, and the unemployed adapt to technological change.

For workers affected by AI-driven job displacement, the document calls for career counseling, skills training, job placement, and entrepreneurial support, as well as timely, full payment of unemployment insurance benefits to eligible recipients. It also urges regulating AI use in human resources management and cracking down on employment discrimination, fake job postings, and violations of privacy and rest rights stemming from algorithm misuse.

The "Engels' pause" seen in previous industrial revolutions is a phase-specific phenomenon that occurs during periods of technological transformation, with the root of the issue lying not in the technology but in the production relations formed around its application, Wang Song, a lecturer at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee's economics department, said at a recent forum hosted by China News Service. 

Wang suggested sharing the dividends of technological progress, fostering harmonious labor relations, supporting innovation among small and medium-sized enterprises, and strengthening global cooperation on governance.

AI's impact on employment remains highly uncertain, Cai Fang, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said at the 2026 Bund Summit. Institutional and policy groundwork should be laid before the impact is felt, he stressed, calling for promoting equitable access to AI, steering its development in the right direction, proactively nurturing sectors, such as services, with high demand elasticity but low labor productivity, and advancing related institutional reforms.

China should distinguish between long-term development trends and short-term transitional pains, neither exaggerating AI's impact on employment nor shying away from the challenges it poses, noted Wei Qijia, a researcher at the National Information Center under the National Development and Reform Commission. He suggested regulating unnecessary job displacement that offers no corresponding social benefit, as well as improving supporting institutions to safeguard workers' rights.

China should improve its social security system to provide a basic safety net for workers affected by industrial transformation and upgrading, helping those affected secure stable income during the transition period, said Liu Enzhi, an associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Marxism. 

Editor: Martin Kadiev