*China’s National Action Plan addresses youth employment on three fronts: securing jobs in key industries, developing new employment possibilities, and improving the quality of employment.
*In the month following the Chinese New Year holiday, the number of AI-related job openings increased by 16.9% year-on-year, and the demand for robot algorithm engineers increased by 57% as the market moved faster than policy.
*The plan aims to make the world’s largest labor market resilient enough to absorb the challenges of the AI era and turn them into opportunities.
BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) — Yu Ziqi was about to graduate with a degree in mechatronics from the Liaoning Provincial Academy of Science and Technology in northeastern China’s Liaoning Province when she started feeling anxious.
She wanted to stay with the ministry, but had no idea what kind of talent local companies were hiring until she discovered Juiulai Liao, a digital platform that lets her watch livestreamed HR sessions, use artificial intelligence (AI) to polish her resume, and practice mock interviews. She eventually got a job at a company in Jinzhou, Liaoning Province.
Huanggze, a native of central China’s Hubei province, chose an even less likely path. The Chinese Academy of Sciences graduate was scrolling through his phone two years ago when he came across a livestream from Liaoning province detailing specific positions, subsidies and housing guarantees. “The flow had everything written in it: job, support, housing security. That’s what made me make the decision,” he said. He currently works in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province.
Their story reflects broader changes, with a record 12.7 million university graduates pouring into a job market undergoing a period of change and transition, 480,000 more than last year. The National Action Plan, announced on 18 May, addresses this challenge on three fronts: securing jobs in key industries, harnessing new job potential and improving the quality of jobs.
hold the line
The first front line is manufacturing, and that’s where most jobs are still located. The plan calls for preserving the sector’s share of the economy and requires companies deploying AI to reskill affected employees rather than simply lay them off. State-owned enterprises are being asked to raise their campus recruitment quotas by an additional 5 percentage points.
Scrambles can already be seen on the ground. Liaoning Province investigated more than 4,600 companies, integrated 37,700 job openings, and published 84,600 job information. The old industrial base’s talent demand directory of 660 positions is now being fed into big data analytics to match graduates with roles.
The ministry has built 798 “Shuxin Employment” community stations, whose name means “peace of mind,” to provide job seekers with services within 15 minutes. The “Juiulai Liao” platform that supported Yu has surpassed 1 million followers, covers all 104 universities in the province, and more than 35% of users are from outside Liaoning.
Jixi City in East China’s Anhui Province has allocated 170,000 yuan (approximately US$24,935) in employment subsidies and 386,500 yuan in skills training subsidies to local businesses. Hebei province in northern China has taken measures to target young job seekers, such as expanding recruitment in public institutions, and Sichuan province in the southwest has secured 30,000 jobs thanks to the policy.
open a new door
In addition to maintaining boundaries, the bigger story is that jobs are being invented, with AI being one of the engines.
According to the latest market data, the supply-demand ratio for AI jobs is 3.5 to 1, and the supply-demand ratio for robotics engineers is 5.2 to 1. In the month following the Chinese New Year holiday, the number of AI-related job openings increased by 16.9 percent year-on-year, and the demand for robotic algorithm engineers increased by 57 percent. Markets move faster than policy.
Baidu says more than 90% of its on-campus hiring is AI-related. Jiashida, a home service robot manufacturer, is looking for ideal candidates who combine liberal arts sensibilities with engineering skills. This shows that the AI era is breaking down old disciplinary boundaries.
Universities are also trying to keep pace. Shanghai Jiao Tong University launched an undergraduate program in Embodied Intelligence and partnered with more than 20 companies to align education, research, and engineering practices with industry needs. More broadly, the 2026 Undergraduate Catalog adds Embodied Intelligence and Future Robotics to the interdisciplinary category, demonstrating a systematic push to develop talent for the AI era.
Beyond technology, new jobs are being created in unexpected places. The plan supports consumer convergence scenarios such as “Performance Plus”, “Sports Plus”, “Food Plus” and “Ice and Snow Plus”, which combine culture, tourism and entertainment.
In Liaoning province, employment stations have popped up during concerts and music festivals, weaving job counseling into the crowds. The field of nursing care and childcare is also being opened up, with efforts such as the certification of “nursing care service technicians” and the establishment of integrated daycare centers to accommodate the aging society and dual-income generation.
raise the floor
Perhaps the most difficult thing is not creating jobs, but making them worth having.
The “Skills Brighten the Future” initiative is rolling out AI and service sector courses in Liaoning province, with the aim of creating a training system for employees throughout their careers. Skill-based pay structures aim to ensure that pay is determined by expertise, not just years of service. Liaoning Province’s “new eight-grade” craftsman system and dual recognition of “degree and skill” are early experiments.
The plan proposes dedicated rights safeguards, a national work accident insurance trial and incentives to join pension schemes for gig and platform workers, who form the fastest growing sector of youth employment. It also calls for a review of annual paid leave regulations and stronger monitoring of worker dispatch practices.
“The key is to establish a ‘grand employment concept’,” said Li Yu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Personnel Sciences, meaning that not only the Ministry of Labor but all government departments should treat employment as a core policy test.
“This year, we will work with relevant authorities to launch an AI technology skills improvement campaign, strengthen AI general education, and continuously improve workers’ digital literacy and AI application ability,” said Zai Tao from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
Taken together, the recently introduced measures aim to synchronize industrial sophistication and job creation, ensuring that as China’s economy moves up the technological ladder, its workforce advances along with it.
Beyond the goal of stabilizing employment numbers this year, China’s National Action Plan aims to make the world’s largest labor market resilient enough to absorb the challenges of the AI era and turn them into opportunities.
(Video reporters: Zhao Yong, Wang Xi, Deng Nan, video editors: Hong Lin, Zhu Cong, Zhu Jianhui)■
