Abstract: This paper analyzes the mechanism of how intelligentization impacts the employment of China's manufacturing industry, and based on China's 2010-2019 provincial panel data, empirically tests the impact of intelligentization on the employment and skill structure of manufacturing industry. The results show that there is a "U-shaped" relationship between intelligentization and total employment in China's manufacturing. When the level of intelligentization is low, the substitution of employment will be the main factor, but the higher level of intelligentization will significantly promote employment growth. The employment creation effect is achieved through intermediate channels such as extending industrial chain and promoting technological innovation. Among them, the mediating effect of industrial chain extension is particularly obvious. Intelligentization is conducive to advanced manufacturing employment structure. With the increase in intelligentization, the demand for high-skilled and medium-skilled labor will increase, while the demand for low-skilled labor will decline. There is regional heterogeneity in the impact of intelligentization on manufacturing employment and its skill structure. To cope with the differential impact of intelligentization on manufacturing employment, we should further improve the quality of higher education and vocational education, optimize the content and model of skills training, formulate differentiated regional policies, and guide intelligentization to promote high-quality manufacturing employment.

Key words: intelligentization, manufacturing, total employment, skill structure