Based on the data of China Household Finance Survey 2015, this paper studied the poverty reduction effect of agricultural subsidies and non‐farm employment. By using the Probit regression model, the paper finds that both agricultural subsidies and non-farm employment can effectively reduce the probability of family poverty. And the higher the level of non‐farm employment, the more obvious the impact of agricultural subsidies on household poverty reduction. Therefore, in order to improve the effect of rural poverty reduction, it is necessary to guide the transference of redundant rural labor force and increase agricultural subsidies on the basis of non‐farm employment. The governments should accelerate the transference of labor force to non‐agricultural industries by increasing rural education expenditure in non‐major areas ,and increase agricultural subsidies in major grain‐producing areas to accelerate the process of agricultural modernization.