Research on the Transformation of China's Employment Structure under the Background of Artificial Intelligence: A Task Perspective

Abstract

With the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) at present, changes in technology are gradually affecting the organisation of work and the structure of employment. AI will affect some parts of a job differently than other parts of the same job. Therefore, this paper will take a task-oriented approach to study how AI is changing employment in China. Based on research on occupational task classification in China and statistical data on employment, as well as recent studies of generative AI and labour markets, this paper investigates the substitution of routine tasks, the augmentation of abstract tasks, and the relative resilience of manual tasks. The four reasons are as follows. First, routine-task employment has generally decreased as standardised and repetitive activities have become more automated. Second, with the help of AI for analysis, creativity, problem-solving and decision-making, abstract-task employment has expanded. Third, many manual operations are not easily automated because they require physical adaptability, interpersonal skills and context-aware judgment. Finally, these different effects lead to employment polarisation, with an increase in demand for high-skilled analytical work and low-skilled service work, and many middle-skilled routine positions under pressure. The paper offers some suggestions for AI education, lifelong learning, human-AI collaboration and employment protection.