The digital economy’s influence on society and the traditional economy is deepening, owing to the wide application of digital technology in production and life. The question of how the digital economy affects the employment structure has become a hot issue to discuss. To explore the impact of the digital economy on the labour structure, this paper selected China’s thirty-one provincial panel data between 2013 and 2020 and utilized the static panel model. On the whole, the proportion of employment in the secondary sector to the total employment rate is declining with the development of the digital economy. The proportion of employment in the tertiary sector to the total employment has increased due to enhancement in the degrees of development in the digital economy. From the perspective of different regions, in the eastern and middle part, improvement in the digital economy has reduced the proportion of employment in the primary sectors to the total employment rate while increasing the proportion of employment in the tertiary sector to the total employment rate and optimizing the industrial structure. Employment in the manufacturing and construction industries in the secondary sector is significantly negatively affected by the development of the digital economy. In addition, the mining industry and utility employment (Production and Supply of Gas, Heat, Water, and Electricity) are not significantly affected by the progress of the digital economy.

China has been the world’s largest market for industrial robots since 2013. Industrial robots improve accuracy, safety, and efficiency in industrial production but have a substantial impact on the labor market. This investigation uses the task-based model to explore the relationship between industrial robots and employment across industries. This study uses industrial robot data from the International Federation of Robotics and employment data from the China Statistical Yearbook from 2010 to 2019 to examine robot applications’ influencing mechanisms on labor demand in different industries in China. The results show a significant positive correlation between robots’ exposure and labor demand for IT, health and social services, science research and technical services, and management of water conservancy and environmental industries. Based on the results, the use of robots promotes high-skilled talent employment and some third-sector employment, like education, food and beverages, utilities, household appliances, and transport. However, multiple regression analysis reveals that the use of robots has reduced employment in traditional industries such as agriculture and mining.

The world is currently witnessing great technological progress, known as the fourth industrial revolution. Although the industrial processes decrease employment in the primary and secondary sectors, it is unclear how technological improvement affects employment in the tertiary sector. This study aims to investigate the impact of technological change on employment numbers in the tertiary industry in China using an ARDL model. Using yearly data from 1991 to 2020, our results show that technological change in the form of the Contractual Value Deal in Domestic Technical Markets and Foreign Direct Investment has a long- and short-run impact on employment in the tertiary industry in China. Also, technological changes show a negative and positive effect on the number of employments in the tertiary industry in the short- and long-run, respectively. This finding implies that technological progress has a substitutive effect on employment in the short-run while creation effect in the long-run. A complete discussion of different specific industries lies beyond the scope of this study.