Abstract: The existing research on the impact of artificial intelligence on the employment of micro enterprises in China mainly uses industry data, focusing on analyzing the impact of artificial intelligence on the total employment at the industry level, neglecting the significant industry impact that micro enterprises will have when using robots. There is no in-depth analysis of the impact of robot use on different enterprises within the industry, and there is no further direct comprehensive analysis of job creation and job destruction in micro-enterprises. By matching the industrial robot data provided by the International Federation of Robotics with the data of Chinese industrial enterprises, we can empirically analyze the employment effects of robots on Chinese micro enterprises in terms of total quantity, heterogeneity, and increment. Research has found that in terms of total quantity, robots significantly reduce the number of labor employed by enterprises. For every 1% increase in robot investment, the labor demand of enterprises will decrease by 1.41%. In terms of heterogeneity, robots have a greater impact on non-state-owned enterprises; the impact on capital intensive, technology intensive, and labor intensive industries is gradually weakening. In terms of increment, robots can both create and destruct jobs, but the significant effect is the job destruction, which mainly occurs in exiting enterprises rather than surviving enterprises. This conclusion has important theoretical value and practical guidance significance for the direction and mode of technological progress, the driving force of economic growth, and the implementation of employment security in China.

Key words: robot, job growth, job creation, job destruction