Industrial upgrading and employment are important for the high-quality development of county economies. The coupled coordination model was used to evaluate the spatio-temporal pattern of the coupled coordination of industrial upgrading and employment in the counties of Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle from 2013 to 2019, and to identify the main obstacles to their coordinated development. It is found that the level of industrial upgrading and employment in the county grows significantly, and the degree of coupling coordination continues to increase, but there are significant regional differences, forming a spatial pattern of “core-edge” and “Administrative Regional Economy”. The obstacle factors restricting the coordinated development of the two are different at different spatial and temporal scales, among which industrial efficiency, employment quantity and its constituent factors are the main obstacle factors.