In the process of implementing innovation driven development strategy, there is a dual contradiction between innovation and employment. Xi Jinping raised that in the background of new normal economy and supplyside of reform, the relationship between innovation and employment should be well handled. This idea is concretely implied in his discussion on “the contradiction of structural employment”. The innovation driven development strategy has a doubleinfluence on employment. The substantial effects of the relevant policies have proved that Xi Jinping’s discussion on the relationship of innovation driven development strategy and structural employment is a scientific theory. The theoretical value is that the discussion reveals that the actual contradiction between innovation and employment is the embodiment of the major contradictions in the new era, especially in the areas of development, employment, education and social security. From the start point of people’s livelihood, the theoretical characteristic of the discussion is “people centered”, and the important historical significance is illustrated from socialist fairness and justice in promoting the free and allround development of human beings from various angles.