Abstract: UDEC is used to analyze the surface subsidence characteristics under different steps of fully mechanized and layered mining face. The research results show that the trend of surface subsidence in the lower layer mining face and the fully mechanized mining face is basically the same, and the extreme value is in the middle back position of the goaf, but the maximum subsidence value of the lower layer face increases by about 30.9%. The sinking coefficient is reduced by about 11.5%; the extreme value of sinking speed of fully mechanized mining face increases with the increase of step of working face, and shifts to the direction of push mining, while the extreme value of sinking speed of lower layered working face relatively decreases; the horizontal movement of the stratum mining face is more violent and fluctuating than that of the fully mechanized mining face. The positive and negative values of the horizontal movement increase by approximately 45.2% and 63.6%, respectively. The influence range of the fully mechanized mining face is greater than that of the layered mining face. Compared with the fully mechanized mining face, the leading influence angle of layered mining under the layer mining face is reduced by about 4.38%, and the boundary angle is reduced by about 1.43%. The conclusion is to provide guidance for rational determination of the mining method.