Abstract: Sports industry plays an important role in absorbing more employment, improving the employment structure, and improving the quality of employment.Based on the employment data of the sports industry from 2006 to 2018, the employment elasticity and VECM are used to conduct an empirical test on the employment impact mechanism of sports industry structure upgrade.The results show that with the continuous optimization of China's sports industry structure, the overall employment elasticity of the sports service industry is relatively high, showing good employment potential and growth space.The sports goods manufacturing industry has weakened or even negatively affected employment absorption capacity on the other hand.The upgrade not only produces "employment creation" but also has a certain degree of "destructive effect":for every 1% increase in the advanced index of the sports industry structure, the number of people employed in the sports industry will increase by 0.788%;for every 1% increase in the advanced index of the sports industry structure, the number of employed persons will decrease by 0.247% in the short term.To further unleash the employment potential of the sports industry, suggestions are put forward including sressing the employment creation effect of industrial structure upgrading, taking into account the alleviation of short-term employment destruction, and establishing the "three-for-one" sports industry employment coordination mechanism.