This article is part of:Centre for the New Economy and Society

• More than 90% of organizations in China see AI and robotics as key technologies to transform their business, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025.
• Enabling this change to happen will require widespread reskilling and upskilling, as employers highlight skills gaps and problems attracting talent amid a decline in the working-age population.
• Chinese businesses are also being reshaped by efforts to reduce carbon emissions; climate technology’s potential to overlap with big data, AI and robotics will create key opportunities for jobs.

One in every two industrial robots installed around the world is being put to work in China. The country has been the leading market for these machines since 2013, and the trend coincides with a shift in demographic trends that means working-age people make up a smaller percentage of the population.

This appears to be impacting the way employers think, with more than 90% identifying AI and 65% identifying robots as key technologies to transform their organization, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 – at a time when 38% are citing talent shortages as a barrier to progress.

The country is ahead of the global average on all of these trends, as well as on seeing the transformative potential of numerous other technologies, from new materials to semiconductors, biotechnology to quantum computing.

What does the future of work look like in China? It will revolve around technology – with robotics and AI enabling a range of technologies, from renewable energy and electric vehicles to chips and super-computing – and it will revolve around reskilling and upskilling on a huge scale to provide people with the capabilities they, and the economy, need.

China’s key labour-market trends

Chinese employers’ concerns about talent availability are not hugely out of step with others around the world – 37% of employers worldwide see problems with talent shortages, only marginally below China’s 38%.

However, China stands out on employers’ perceptions of skills gaps – only 50% see this as an obstacle to progress, compared with 63% feeling this way globally.

This is likely due to a government drive on funding for reskilling and upskilling programmes, with China’s latest Five-Year Plan (for 2021-25) focusing on the development of “high-quality workers with technical skills”, in tandem with a goal for “global leadership” in robotics.

China’s historically high emissions have also pushed it towards its current status as a leader in renewable energy production. The country’s businesses are being reshaped by these efforts to cut carbon and adapt to climate change, with 64% and 56%, respectively, saying these needs are likely to drive transformation (far above global averages of 47% and 41%, respectively).

One way they are addressing this is by using big data to identify pollution hotspots and help enforce air-quality standards. This use of new skills and technology to solve existing problems appears to be one area where significant jobs growth is likely to happen.

Net growth in AI and machine learning specialists is above the global average of 82%. There is also strong net growth of 46% in data analysts and scientists, just above the global average of 41%.

China’s challenges: population shifts and geopolitics

China’s population has now shrunk for three years in a row, leading 47% of employers to see the decline in the working-age population as a potential barrier to change, compared with a global average of 40%.

While China’s birth rate edged up in 2024 compared with 2023, it was still insufficient to create population growth. The cessation of the one-child policy around a decade ago appears unlikely to provide a long-term reversal in demographics.

With projections showing just 36% of the country being of working age by 2100, down from around 59% today, there is arguably no bigger long-term issue facing China’s economy. This is despite the threat of rising geopolitical divisions and conflicts, which 56% of employers expect to be impacted by in the years ahead – far above the 34% average worldwide.

What’s next for China?

Identifying and tackling skills and talent gaps are among the most urgent challenges for employers in China, and progress is already happening in these areas with support from government funding.

Being home to a growing number of businesses with world-leading capabilities in cutting-edge technologies such as robotics and AI will also help, by providing employees with crucial experience that should equip them for the employment market of the future.

Climate technology looks set to remain a key source of new jobs, with China already the world’s leading provider of employment in renewable energy – it had 46% of the global total in 2024, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. The potential to overlap with the other key growth areas like big data, AI and robotics will enhance the impact these sectors have on the economy.

“China is undergoing rapid transformation through digitalization, intelligentization and green transition, profoundly reshaping the employment landscape while sparking robust demand for multi-disciplinary talents in digital technologies, AI applications, sustainable development and advanced manufacturing,” says Dr Huang Hanquan, president of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research. “This transformation is accelerating skill obsolescence, making adaptive capacity, learning agility and cross-domain expertise the new competitive imperatives for future professionals, while simultaneously posing transitional challenges for the conventional workforce. To maintain resilience and capitalize on emerging opportunities, organizations must adopt proactive talent strategies that substantially invest in workforce upskilling/reskilling initiatives while building agile organizational structures.”

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As well as reskilling people who are already in work, China has to refocus its education system on the skills needed for a digital economy – rather than the industrial one that helped get it where it is today. Many organizations also believe increased flexibility around hiring and firing practices, as well as changes to immigration laws, could help.

Governments and businesses will need to work together to make sure all of these changes happen – pinpointing areas where skills are needed and then rolling out programmes that will enable these gaps to be filled.

Preparing people for the jobs of tomorrow is a key focus of the World Economic Forum’s Reskilling Revolution, which unites businesses, governments, and civil society to address the growing need to transform education, skills, and jobs to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.