China’s labor market is increasingly anxious about job losses as artificial intelligence spreads through factories, offices and classrooms, with some estimates putting tens of millions of positions at risk over the next decade.
Beijing-based sources familiar with technology and labor issues said China’s AI capabilities have advanced rapidly and are now approaching the level of the United States, with humanoid robots already being deployed at industrial sites. While businesses and technology circles have welcomed the shift, workers are growing uneasy about whether they can compete with AI systems that can perform tasks continuously and at scale.
Those concerns have also reached policymakers. China’s labor ministry has said it plans to roll out policy measures to address the impact of AI on employment as adoption accelerates.
The sources said a recent survey by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security estimated that up to 40 million jobs could disappear over the next decade as AI becomes more widely used across industries. Yang Yongqiang, identified as chairman of Zhongsheng Investment, was quoted as saying there are few limits on where AI could be deployed and that job displacement will become increasingly difficult to avoid.
Education was described as one of the sectors most exposed. The report cited Yu Minhong, founder and chairman of New Oriental Group, as warning that as many as 10 million teaching jobs could be replaced by AI within a decade. The account said China had about 20 million teachers across all school levels by the end of 2025, implying that as many as half could be affected.
Other professions expected to face growing pressure include lawyers, accountants and doctors, the sources said. Creative fields were also mentioned, along with competitive mind sports such as Go, where AI’s dominance has already been demonstrated.
Manual laborers may face even sharper disruption, the report said, as factories expand the use of humanoid robots that can maintain high productivity without fatigue.