From Competition to Coexistence: The Evolution of the Labour Market for College Graduates in the Age of Automation

Grounded in “The Race Between Education and Technology,” this book uses multisource data to analyse the evolving labour market for college graduates, interpreting how the relationship between humans and automation shifts from competition to coexistence, which is reshaping skill demand, education policy, and labour market in China and abroad.

In examining the competition between humans and automation, the authors analyse how automation is pushing graduates out of informal employment, reshaping their career paths, and changing labour market structures. They also explore the impact of automation on skill demand, distinguishing between general and specific skills and highlighting how technological advancements are driving the evolving requirements of the labour market. The discussion then moves from competition to coexistence between humans and automation, highlighting the crucial role of education policy in managing human-automation substitution. The authors contend that rather than simply displacing human workers, automation can be integrated into the workforce in a way that promotes coexistence and even synergy between human skills and technological innovation.

This book advances the traditional understanding of the relationship between technology, labour market, and education. It will appeal to scholars and students who are interested in the economics of education and labour economics.

Peikang Zhang is an assistant professor at the Institute of Higher Education and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Data Science from Fudan University. He received his Ph.D. from Peking University in 2022. His research interests include economics of education and labour economics. He is also a GLO Virtual Young Scholar in the 2023–2024 cohort and has been a GLO fellow since 2025.

Huailiang Liang is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Education from Tsinghua University. His research interests include education policy and economics of education.

Xuanyu Chen is a master’s student at the Institute of Higher Education from Fudan University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Educational Technology from Shanghai International Studies University. His research interests involve the economics of education, learning sciences, and artificial intelligence (AI) in education.

Yuxuan Qin is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Higher Education from Fudan University. Her research interests include economics of education, AI in education, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education.