As an emerging track in the digital cultural industry, micro dramas have become a new engine for driving employment due to their lightweight production and rapid iteration. The report on the development pattern and employment driving effect of China's micro drama industry in 2025, recently released by the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, shows that the monthly output of micro dramas in China has remained stable at over 3000 units, forming a clear division of labor industry system, directly absorbing about 690000 people in employment. After adding the multiplier effect of the industrial chain, the overall contribution to the national employment market has exceeded 2.03 million people. This emerging industry not only digests the existing employment demand of the traditional film and television industry, but also expands employment increment, optimizes employment structure, and provides diverse employment opportunities for different groups, paving the way for a new business model to drive high-quality employment. The project-based model of stabilizing flexible employment in the traditional film and television industry is prone to employment fluctuations, while micro dramas rely on standardized production with "short cycles and high turnover" to digest the existing employment demand in the traditional film and television field and create more stable employment expectations. According to estimates, the direct labor input generated by micro dramas is about 36.85 million working days. A standardized production team of 60 to 90 people, covering the entire process of directing, photography, lighting, and costume design, with a typical shooting cycle of 5 to 10 days. This means that the same group of key practitioners can participate in dozens of projects within a year, changing the anxiety state of some practitioners who are "doing one order and waiting for one order", and achieving sustained and stable employment. The short production cycle of micro dramas did not stimulate temporary employment, but instead formed a sustained demand for core positions, effectively absorbing surplus talents after the contraction of the traditional long drama market, and completing the transformation of re employment within the industry. This model not only stabilized the employment stock, but also expanded the employment increment and optimized the employment structure. Zhang Dandan, the head of the research group, Vice Dean of the National Development Research Institute at Peking University, and Executive Deputy Director of the China Center for Economic Research, stated that micro dramas provide positions that match the abilities and rewards of actors with academic backgrounds but have not yet entered the top sequence, cross-border practitioners transitioning from live streaming and short video fields, and new entities moving from behind the scenes positions to the front stage. This has been vividly confirmed in grassroots practice. In Qujiang District, Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, a "specialty gig market" dedicated to serving the short drama industry has emerged. The person in charge, Wu Jiali, told reporters that a local part-time group performance library with a scale of 3000 people has been built in the market, covering local part-time workers, unemployed people and other groups, and attracting more than 300 non local practitioners to settle in, forming a dual track supply. The government has introduced policies to help the market establish a "recruitment training guarantee salary" employment mechanism: conducting pre job training, issuing actor certificates, uniformly paying salaries through actor unions, and purchasing daily accident insurance. This not only solves the cost and timeliness pain points of cross regional deployment of the crew, but also provides low threshold and guaranteed opportunities for local flexible employment. ”Wu Jiali said. This move will bring scattered and temporary employment into the standardized track, and accurately respond to the demand for "more comprehensive and higher quality employment" through market-oriented innovative mechanisms. Another significant feature of micro dramas that help cities retain talent is their "decentralized" industrial layout. The production of micro dramas relies relatively less on the core resources of mega cities, and is more likely to form industrial clusters in non first tier cities with cost advantages and unique scene resources, becoming a new engine for regional development. At present, various characteristic micro drama industry clusters have been formed nationwide. From a regional distribution perspective, the production of micro dramas in Henan Province accounts for a quarter of the national production. According to the Henan Cultural Development Report (2026), in the first seven months of 2025, over 2600 micro dramas were registered through online audio-visual platforms in Zhengzhou, with a year-on-year increase of about 90% in micro drama enterprises, which is in a period of rapid growth. From the distribution of themes, different regions have formed obvious differentiated competitive advantages. Hengdian Film and Television City in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province has become the filming base for nearly 90% of ancient costume micro dramas in China; Xi'an City in Shaanxi Province provides large-scale supply through post production industrialization clusters, producing 40% to 60% of the country's plays annually. The development of Zhengzhou's micro drama industry is a representative of the policy guided and cost driven model. ”Chen Ning, Vice Dean of the School of Politics and Public Administration at Zhengzhou University, pointed out that local idle factories have been transformed into intensive filming bases. The 4th floor of the south city of Zhengzhou Phoenix Home Furnishing Mall, which opened in 2009, has transformed from an idle space into a micro drama shooting base with more than 20 scenes including hospitals, police stations, and offices. The industrial scale effect is transformed into significant employment outcomes. Chen Ning introduced that the micro drama industry in Zhengzhou has driven more than 40000 direct employees, of which 70% are under 30 years old and 60% have a college degree or above. This indicates that the micro drama industry not only creates jobs, but also efficiently attracts and retains high-quality young labor in central and western cities. This natural sinking of industries driven by both cost advantages and economic characteristics provides a new approach for regional coordinated development: without relying on traditional heavy asset investment, by undertaking suitable new business models, it can activate existing resources, optimize population structure, cultivate endogenous growth drivers, and achieve sustainable "curve overtaking". The micro drama industry has demonstrated a strong "multiplier effect" in driving employment. Every direct employment position can drive indirect employment opportunities in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. The broadcast of micro dramas means that a wide range of fields outside the production team, such as platform operation, e-commerce derivatives, and local life services (catering, accommodation, leasing, tourism), have been revitalized, driving employment growth in related industries such as urban tourism, physical commodity sales, and offline experiences. The evolution of business models that drive talent growth has driven the high-quality growth of industries. Experts say that the business model of micro dramas is shifting from being dominated by "a small number of paid dramas" in the early days to a mature form of "free access to content and advertising sharing as the main focus". This shift places higher demands on the quality of micro dramas, forcing producers to break free from the traffic trap of "strong conflicts at the beginning" and instead pursue the sustained attractiveness of the plot, the richness of the characters, and the excellence of the production, in order to obtain users' "sustainable attention value". The industry is clearly moving towards an intelligence and skill intensive track. The new requirements for content production have given rise to new talent demands, and have also triggered a full chain transformation covering talent standards, skill structures, and training systems. On the core creative end, screenwriters and content creators have become one of the fastest-growing groups. According to data from the Hongguo Short Drama Creation Service Platform, the number of collaborative screenwriters has increased nearly nine times in the first nine months of 2025, highlighting the strong demand for content. At the same time, the integration of technology and market expansion has given rise to a new category of high skilled professions. Wei Qintao, the person in charge of the Red Fruit Short Drama Boutique, stated that the development of AI technology has given rise to the need for "AI animation masters" who possess both technical skills, theatrical literacy, and a sense of the internet. For short dramas to go global, cross-cultural operation talents are needed, and the demand for user growth has made "data operation optimization masters" a key position. In recent years, Hangzhou has actively cultivated the "AI animator" labor service brand, collaborated with 11 vocational colleges to carry out systematic training, covering more than 5000 people, and opened up a new career track for young talents. Li Xiaolong, General Manager of Huaguoshan Shuyi Education Technology Co., Ltd., said, "AI technology has replaced some of the preliminary basic work, making people's creativity and aesthetic value more critical. ”The driving force of micro dramas on employment is shifting from scale dividends, driven by market and technology, to the appreciation of "human capital" centered on skills and creativity. (New Society)