China Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security

China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) is the central government body that sets Labour relations policy, The National occupational classification framework, vocational training standards and the social insurance system for a workforce of 1.4 billion people. In April 2026 it recognised 42 new AI-related occupations, each projected to need 300,000 to 500,000 workers, as part of a dedicated AI employment policy aimed at the 12.7 million graduates entering that year's labour market.

The ministry frames AI as a net job creator rather than a threat, a position built into China's latest five-year plan, which counts on AI-linked employment to help offset roughly 300 million retirements over the coming decade. Minister Wang Xiaoping has described the government as 'actively leveraging AI' to absorb graduate employment pressure during a period of weak GDP growth.

MOHRSS acts as both regulator and promoter of this strategy, publishing occupational categories while economist Cai Fang has warned publicly, and unusually candidly for a state-linked voice, that AI job destruction often arrives before job creation. The ministry's stance contrasts with the EU, which delayed its AI workplace rules by 16 months, and with the US, which has no equivalent federal tracking of AI displacement.