The research on human capital, industrial structure upgrading and economic growth has always been one of the focus issues in academia. The existing literature is developed from different perspectives. First of all, the research on human capital mainly focuses on the research of human capital and economic growth, including the relationship between total human capital and economic growth, the relationship between human capital structure and economic growth, and the relationship between healthy human capital and economic growth. Secondly, the research on the upgrading of industrial structure includes the upgrading of industrial structure and economic growth, the influencing factors of the upgrading of industrial structure and so on. Among them, the influencing factors mainly include technological progress, market supply and demand, population, trade and government policies. Thirdly, the research on the impact of human capital on the upgrading of industrial structure mainly includes the matching of heterogeneous human capital and industrial structure, and the impact mechanism of human capital on industrial structure. This paper systematically reviews the development of literature on human capital, industrial structure upgrading and their relationship, and points out the problems existing in the literature, possible improvements in the future and several issues that may need attention in the future.