Abstract: To clarify the impact and underlying mechanisms of industrial robot adoption on China's labor force structure, this study matches industrial robot data with listed manufacturing company data from 2011 to 2019 for empirical analysis.The findings reveal that the substitution effect of industrial robot adoption currently outweighs its creation effect, exhibiting skill-biased characteristics of “employment polarization.” Specifically, the creation effect is more pronounced for high-skilled and low-skilled workers, while the substitution effect is more evident for middle-skilled workers.Industrial robot adoption influences labor force structure primarily through three mechanisms: strengthening market power, enhancing total factor productivity, and promoting green innovation.Additionally, the employment effects of industrial robot adoption vary across workers with different task attributes and enterprises in different regions.These findings suggest that fostering strategic emerging industries and future industries while intensifying high-skilled worker training should be policy priorities for achieving high-quality full employment in China.